


My Very Own Peter Parker

by Stydiem



Category: Teen Wolf (TV), The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb)
Genre: Argent Werewolf, M/M, Niles - Freeform, Stoah, Teen Wolf AU, Teen Wolf/ Amazing Spiderman crossover, i have no clue what i'm doing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-21
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-01-13 07:52:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1218370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stydiem/pseuds/Stydiem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"'Have you ever heard of arachnilupis?'<br/>'Not that I can recall, no.' Noah replied.<br/>'It took me all night, going through that terrible bestiary your family keeps, but I think I found what we’re looking for' Stiles said.<br/>'They’re like, wolf-spider-human super hybrids. And I think you’re one of them' he was talking so fast it took Noah a second to realize what Stiles was getting at.<br/>'Stiles, I could kiss you right now. I can’t believe you figured it out' they both went quiet, realizing what Noah had said."</p><p>Noah Argent has spent his entire life as a werewolf hunter (although not a very good one), until he gets the bite. Like a death sentence, the bite means only one thing to the Argents- suicide. Fleeing his family for the chance to live, Noah escapes to his Uncle in California. What he finds there is more than he could have ever bargained for; friends, a pack, and most importantly, Stiles. As Noah starts to learn to control his new found abilities, he learns that he might not be just an ordinary werewolf. With Beacon Hills in more peril than ever, Noah must juggle his own power, his past, protecting the people he now holds dear, and a blossoming love. And he needs the help of his new friends to do it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is my very first attempt at fan fiction ever so please bear with me as I get used to things. The idea for this was inspired by betalaheyed’s gif sets. (betalaheyed.tumblr.com/tagged/aargent) Mainly because 1) I LOVE ANDREW GARFIELD SO MUCH 2) Peter Parker and Stiles Stilinski? Was there ever a more perfect match? So, without further ado, here is my twist on Noah Argent; 'My Very Own Peter Parker', a Niles fic. I'll try updating and adding more and more chapters as I go along. I have the entire thing roughly outlined as of right now, so it should go on (hopefully, if people like it) for a while. Hope you enjoy, and any and all feedback would be much appreciated! I'm getting used to this fic writing stuff so if anyone has any advice, hit me up.  
> Oh, and also, this story starts off taking place right around the beginning of 3b.

Slanting rain pelted the figure standing in the alleyway, but the person, whomever they were, didn’t seem to mind. They stood with their back to Noah, shoulders hunched over, looking down. The hood of the black raincoat the person was wearing was up, but Noah could make out broad shoulders, hinting at a man. The guy was quite slim, his lanky form evident even through the rather loose jacket.

Noah narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look. Failing that, he removed his glasses and wiped at the lenses with his sleeve, hoping to clear the god damn condensation that always built up on them when it rained. Once the glasses were securely back on his face, Noah felt his stomach drop. The figure was gone. In its place was nothing but wet pavement peppered with puddles where the asphalt had worn away.

He spun around, hoping to catch a glance of the culprit retreating down the adjacent road. Nothing. How could he have snuck past him? Years of training with his father had left him with incredibly heightened senses, especially since his eyesight was so… lacking.

After getting bitten Noah thought that perhaps improved eyesight might have been an actual upside to a thing he could only describe as an utter and total catastrophe. However, his eyesight remained terrible, despite the occasional burst of strength it seemed to gain at the oddest of times, when he would find himself without need of his thick framed glasses if only for a few minutes.

A crash of thunder sent Noah skiddering back into the shadows. He pressed himself flat against the freezing brick of one of the abandoned warehouses he was wedged between, shuddering with the cold as he did so.

His hands shook against the wall, and he tried to steady them. _Never show fear_. His father’s words echoed through his mind. _It is a sign of weakness. They will be able to smell it_. Noah had been confused _Who? Who will be able to smell it Father?_ Noah let his eyelids slip closed with the memory, of his father resting his hand on his shoulder, kneeling down so he was eye-to-eye with him, saying _Our enemies, Noah. Werewolves_. Noah snapped his eyes open. He was one of them now. A werewolf, since he was too much of a coward. His father would never touch him again. Another memory took the former’s place. A sharp sting as his father’s hand cut across his cheek. He didn’t know if he wanted his father to touch him again.

He realized he was starting to shiver, standing in the rain as he was. California was supposed to be warm, but it sure as hell wasn’t tonight. The thin hoodie he wore did little to protect him from the raging storm. He had ducked into an alley to try to get away from it, only to learn he wasn’t alone. The figure that had stood at the end of the alley sent a shiver straight done his spine and into his toes. Noah knew there was something off about the guy. His sudden disappearance only confirmed it.

Gritting his teeth, Noah pushed off from the wall and stepped back out into the alley, his feet squishing in his drenched sneakers. Even though he was borderline hypothermic and could hardly see through his already fogged up glasses, which had remained clear a total of 0.2 seconds, he wasn’t going to let himself cower in the shadows like he had all his life. No. He was a werewolf, even though he was taught his entire life that he should rather die than become one. He was strong now. Something he had never felt in his life.

A skinny guy in a raincoat wasn’t going to do shit to him. He could rip out his throat with the flick of a wrist if he wanted to. No one was going to mess with Noah Argent ever again. He cautiously made his way out onto the street, the rain pelting his face so hard he almost choked on the rainwater pouring into his mouth. All of a sudden, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Noah whipped around, leg out, and landed a kick to the person’s stomach.

“Oof” the person went flying back, hitting the wall of one of the buildings and sliding down, landing in a sprawled heap on the pavement. Noah advanced upon him, raising his fist, feeling the sharp sting of his claws as they broke through the nail bed. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins.

“Woah woah woah! I swear I’m harmless! Look at me! I bring peace!” the guy coughed out, holding his hands up in front of his face as a shield.

Noah snapped out of it, stepping back. It was just some soaking wet teenage guy, around his age. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead and his amber eyes peered up at the other boy through heavy lashes.

“Please don’t hurt me. I swear I’m not up to anything, just wandering what the fuck you’re doing out here in a storm.” The guy said, lowering his hands.

“I might ask you the same thing." Noah replied, crossing his arms and taking in the other boy’s clothing- or lack thereof- only a plaid shirt over a grey tshirt, both soaking. The guy brought one of his legs up to his chest and rested his arm on it, slouching back against the wall as he did so.

“I asked first.” He challenged, raising up his chin and looking Noah defiantly in the eyes. Noah chewed the inside of his lip. He wasn’t sure what to say. There was no way he could tell the truth, that he was a werewolf who had just arrived in Beacon Hills, California to find his long lost Uncle and Cousin and had been staying in an abandoned warehouse for the past few days, trying to work up the courage to go and talk to them. He was too afraid that the whispers he’d overheard from his parents would be wrong, that they wouldn’t be so understanding as he hoped and instead would kill him on the spot. Or worse, send him back to his father.But he had no choice. They were his only hope.

No. Instead, he replied with “I’m here because my parents kicked me out and I have nowhere else to go” he shrugged after, adding to the poor-forlorn-teenager-no-one-gets-me-but-I-don’t-care image he was trying to put on. It was part of the truth, anyway.

The guy looked at him skeptically. “I highly doubt that, but sure.”

They exchanged a look that said ‘I don’t believe you and you know I don’t but we’ll just go with it’ before the other boy added “I’m Stiles, by the way.” Stretching out his hand for a shake as he did so.

“Noah” Noah took his hand, which was surprisingly warm and soft despite the biting rain and really, really, nice, actually, and shook it. How could someone even have fingers that long?

“Well Noah, seeing as you’re ‘homeless’ and all” he put air quotes with his fingers around the homeless “why don’t you let me bring you back to my place? You look like you’re on the brink of death…” Stiles said, getting to his feet and brushing off his pants, his nice hands brushing off invisible dirt which Noah thought was kind of useless because they were completely soaked through.

“Uh, are you sure? You just met me. I could very well be a serial killer” Noah replied, hesitating, but at the same time freezing and cold and lonely and in desperate need of somewhere to stay.

Stiles looked him up and down. “I’ll take my chances” he snarked.

Noah stepped back, putting a hand to his heart and looking offended. “Wha- Oh come on! I could totally take you.” Sure, Noah was skinny and defenseless looking, but so was this guy.

“I know, you already did. But I’m too irresistible. I’d seduce you with a look and you’d become totally helpless to my every whim. It’s actually my secret special power. Don’t tell anyone.” He grinned, and Noah felt a little clench in his stomach at the guy’s smile. Something about him made Noah feel. He wasn’t sure what he felt, but it was certainly something.

“If you’re alright with it, I guess…” Though Noah was intrigued by Stiles, he was afraid to go to his house. Not only was he himself dangerous, but for all he knew, Stiles was the serial killer. He decided to take his chances. Living in a drafty old warehouse got old after the first twenty minutes, and he’d taken up residence three days ago.

Stiles smiled. “Great. I wouldn’t want your death on my conscience” he had a valid point. Noah felt close to death. His lack of body fat wasn’t helping with the pelting rain that left him chilled to the bone.

“Uh, I’ll go get my stuff-“ Noah jutted his thumb in the direction of the warehouse he was staying in. “Do you have, like, a car?”

“Heck ya I do! I’ll go get it and meet you back here in ten minutes? Is that good?” Noah nodded and Stiles jaunted off, doing a little skip to get going. Noah was surprised to feel a small smile on his lips as he walked towards the warehouse.

Once inside, he threw the few possessions he had- mainly clothes and books- into the duffle bag he’d grabbed from his room in a hurry to get the hell out of town. Jogging back to the alleyway where they’d met, Noah wondered whether or not Stiles would actually return, or if he had just been pacifying the lunatic who’d attacked him.

To his surprise, however, he found Stiles waiting in a blue jeep at the mouth of the alley. When he saw Noah, he excitedly waved him over, and Noah couldn’t help but grin back in response.

Noah opened the back door of the jeep and hesitated before throwing his wet bag inside. He didn’t want to mess up Stiles’ seats. He probably cared a lot about his car, most teenage boys did.

“Don’t worry about it, this baby’s been through much worse.” Stiles said, patting the dashboard of the car and smiling fondly. Noah shrugged and chucked the duffle bag onto the seat, then shut the door and climbed into the passenger side.

“Alright, time to crank the heat. You know, you might need your fingers later in life at some point.” Stiles fiddled with some nobs before turning the jeep around and setting off down the road.

Noah let out of a sigh of relief, happy to be leaving behind that rather creepy (not to mention rat infested and cold) area of town. As they drove, Stiles started to talk.

“Okay, once we get inside, just tell my dad you’re a friend who moved and you’re visiting. Say you moved to Canada or something but you came back for a bit cuz you hadn’t been to Beacon Hills in years. Don’t talk to him too much or he’ll probably figure out you’re not really from around here.”

“How did you-“ Noah started, but Stiles shot him a look. Okay, maybe it was more obvious than he wished.

“He’ll probably want to know why we’re soaked, so tell him the jeep stalled on the way back from the airport but we got it working again. I’ll do most of the talking, but its best if we both know the cover story. You know, cover our tracks.”

“Totally.” Noah replied, trying to sound self-assured when in reality he was beginning to question who the hell this guy was. He sounded like some kind of professional pathological liar. But Noah felt a kind of connection to the lanky teenager that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, and he didn’t feel too concerned. Something about Stiles felt right.

“Hey- Do you know Allison Argent?” he didn’t know where it came from, but the words just burst from his mouth.

“Wha- Ya! She’s actually one of my pa- really good friends. How do you know her? Is she the reason you’re here? Wait-“ he shot a suspicious sideways glance at Noah “am I falling right into your little trap? Are you going to kidnap her or something? Scott will not like this-“

“No! I am not going to kidnap her!” Noah laughed. “She’s my cousin”

Stiles mouth fell open in a little ‘o’, and Noah rushed to cover up his mistake.

“But don’t mention me- at least not yet. She’s actually the reason why I came to Beacon Hills. She doesn’t know I’m here yet, though, so don’t tell her!” Stiles nodded.

“No problem dude, your secret’s safe with me.” He mimed locking his lips and throwing the key away. “Why’d you come to see her then? Just a nice family visit for old times sake?” Stiles raised an eyebrow and glanced at Noah expectantly. Noah knew he was trying to get him to talk, but Noah wasn’t really up for it. There was no way Stiles could find out what Noah was doing here. He would think he was crazy, or would contact the police who would probably contact his parents and no way did Noah want that.

“Nice try, but I’m not saying anything.” Noah replied, acknowledging Stiles’ attempt. Stiles huffed out a breath and shook his head.

“Points for trying.” Noah laughed at that, and Stiles shot him a small grin, but Noah could see the gears turning in his head as he pieced it together. Man, this guy was quick. He tapped his long fingers on the steering wheel and looked like he was going to add something. Just then they pulled into a driveway, and Noah was spared from answering whatever Stiles was going to say.

“Home sweet home!” Stiles sing songed, then turned deadly serious.

“Now, remember what we rehearsed. Once we get past him we can get you some dry clothes and you can sleep on my floor or something.” He shut off the ignition and hopped out of the car.

“Sounds like a plan.” Noah said, reaching behind him to get his bag and then getting out after him. Stiles turned and Noah started to follow before stopping.

“Oh and Stiles?”

“Ya?” Stiles asked, turning to face Noah.

“Thanks. This really helps me out. I know I’m some complete stranger who you probably think is a little crazy- what with the attacking you and all- but this is really nice of you. Thanks.” he twisted his sleeve with his fingers as he spoke, and when he finished, he pushed his glasses, which had slipped down his nose, back into place. Even though the two of them dried a bit from the warm car ride back from the warehouses, they were soaked through instantly after getting out of the car again. The rain was stronger than ever.

A small smile rested on Stiles’ mouth as he replied with “It’s my pleasure, Noah. Now lets go”

Noah nodded and followed the boy inside, wondering why someone would be so nice to a complete stranger, what he was going to do in the morning, how he was going to finally talk to Allison and her father. But mostly, how great a view he had of Stiles’ fantastic bum as he walked behind him and up the steps through the front door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 2! Both chapters have been pretty short so far but I'm planning on making them a bit longer as I continue. As well, not sure how long the gap between updating will be, so don't expect me to always be this quick. Feedback is great! Hope you enjoy.

“You’re useless!” Noah groaned.

“I’m sorry, I forget. Which one of us is the the guy lending his _house_ to someone he met in a dark alleyway during a thunderstorm?” Stiles asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.

He jutted out his head and smirked. “Oh right, that would be me.”

“I’ll give you that, but the entire time I’ve been wrestling with this stupid thing, with no progress whatsoever, by the way, you’ve been lounging on your bed and laughing at me!”

“I enjoy the struggle” Stiles replied, his mouth quirking up at the corners, a little glint in his eye. Noah suppressed another groan, the root of which he wasn’t sure whether was sexual or from frustration. He figured the likely answer was a nice blend of both. Maybe a bit more towards the sexual side.

“Just help me.” Noah sighed exasperatedly.

“Fiiiine.” Stiles rolled off the bed and onto the floor, earning a bit of laughter from Noah. He picked himself up and walked over to the other boy.

Stiles made himself comfortable on the floor, settling down to stare at the little device used to inflate the air mattress that Noah was going to be sleeping on. The air mattress currently lay beside the two of them, flat and dead and looking a little lonely.

“This is easy as hell” was the deduction Stiles came to after staring at the piece of plastic for what felt like an eternity, but was really more a matter of mere minutes.

“I wasn’t aware hell was easy?” Noah rebutted, and Stiles smirked, turning his head to look at Noah.

“It is for me” his voice had an edge to it, and Noah’s mouth went dry.

“So can you-“ his voice cracked and he cleared his throat before continuing- “Can you get it to work? I’m exhausted.” To be completely honest, Noah likely could’ve figured it out if he’d tried. It wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty of experience working with contraptions a lot more intricate than this one, what with the werewolf hunting and all, but Stiles had looked really good laying there and for some reason Noah’s brain couldn’t really differ from the image of him staring at Noah amusedly, sprawled out on his bed.

“Done.” Noah hadn’t even noticed Stiles inflating the mattress, which now sat full and ready to be slept on. It certainly looked less lonely.

“Thank you!” Stiles smiled.

“Anytime. Except on Tuesdays. Tuesdays are my day off.”

“Right, I’ll keep that in mind.” Noah replied, standing up and gathering the stack of sheets that Stiles’ dad had kindly brought up for him.

When Noah turned back around, he found Stiles standing butt naked with his back to him, rifling through a dresser.

“Oh my god, sorry. Sorry- uh- shit” he turned back around quickly, heat flooding his face as he stared at the ground, which didn’t really help because the image of Stiles’ glorious ass, even if he’d only seen it for half a second, was burned into his eyelids

“No problemo. I probably should’ve warned you but, eh. I’ll warn you now- I sleep naked.” Noah inadvertently made a little choking sound, still resolutely staring at the ground. Stiles laughed.

“If it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll put on some pants. Just for you.” Noah wanted to say _no, don’t put on pants, come here right now_ , but he kept quiet. He didn’t think- no, he knew- Stiles wouldn’t be into him the way he was into Stiles.

“You can turn around now” Stiles huffed.

“Oh, sorry. Okay.” Noah turned back around to find Stiles standing surprisingly close, now sporting a pair of plaid pajama pants. Noah’s heart skipped a couple beats. Even though he was now partially clothed, Noah had a wonderful view of Stiles’ surprisingly defined stomach and chest, and he felt a flush of heat noticing the thin line of dark hair that disappeared into his waistband.

Stiles smiled and brushed past him, vaulting into bed and pulling up the covers all in one swift motion.

“Time for bed, sweetheart.” He cooed.

Noah turned his back to him as he put the covers on the air mattress, silently praying that the tent in the sweatpants Stiles had let him borrow wouldn’t be visible. Or better yet, just disappear.

Once his bed was made, Noah pulled off his socks (because he had a serious aversion to wearing socks in bed) and was about to get under the covers when he realized the light was still on.

“Might be a good idea to turn the light off, eh?” he asked Stiles.

“No worries Noah, I’ll get it.” the light flicked off and Noah turned to see Stiles’ dad standing in the doorway.

“I’m glad you came for a visit, even if I can’t seem to remember you back in the day. I’m sorry about that, by the way. I feel so rude. What was your last name again?” the older man asked, and Noah flinched.

“Aaron. His last name’s Aaron.” Stiles interjected. Noah nodded, confirming the statement.

“Noah Aaron, right.” Mr. Stilinski nodded, looking like he was trying hard to remember something.

Noah almost felt bad for making the man rack his brain for a young boy he would never remember, but he figured it wasn’t too big a price to pay. It was certainly better than the truth.

He smiled, walking over to Stiles’ bed and planting a kiss on his forehead. Noah felt a little ache in his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time his father had tucked him in, let alone kissed his forehead.

After returning to the doorway, Stiles’ dad awkwardly stood there for a minute before nodding and doing a kind of half wave, adding “Well, goodnight boys” then closing the door behind him.

Noah crawled into bed and pulled the sheets up around him. They were soft and smelled really nice, like a mix of laundry detergent and warmth, if you could describe warmth as a smell.

“Night night don’t let the bed bugs bite” Noah murmured to Stiles, whom he wasn’t even sure was awake.

“Or the werewolves” Stiles added, and Noah laughed silently.

“Good night” he remembered whispering, before sleep came like an old friend and pulled him into the first peaceful and uninterrupted rest he’d had in days.

 

***

When Noah awoke the next morning, he practically had to pry his eyelids apart. They felt like they were made of lead, and his mouth was parched. At first, all he could make out was something blue.

“Wha-“ the image before him swam into focus, and he realized a pair of blue eyes were staring at him, incredibly close to his face.

“No, ya. He’s alive.” The owner of the eyes said, stepping back and crossing his arms. Noah blinked, and was able to focus more on the guy. Tall, with curly hair. He wore a navy blue scarf around his neck and was staring at Noah with an intensity that made him uncomfortable.

“Um, good morning to you too.” Noah croaked out, slowly sitting himself up and running a hand through his hair so it stood straight up.

“I told you, he isn’t dead. He had a rough night, needed the extra sleep.” Stiles was sitting on his bed cross legged, now wearing a t-shirt and sweat pants.

“Oh, hey Stiles. Mind informing me of who this guy is?” Noah asked.

“That’s Isaac. And that-“ Stiles pointed to Isaac’s neck- “is Isaac’s scarf.” Isaac shot him a begrudging look.

“Noah, Isaac and Isaac’s scarf. Isaac and Isaac’s scarf, Noah.” Stiles brandished between the two, or technically three, of them.

“I’m here too?” a voice, coming from a guy with dark hair standing by the window said.

“Ah yes, and this is Scott McCall, true alpha, total cutie, heart of gold. Some say he resembles a puppy but I tend to lean more towards a little baby frog. Don’t you think? A frog?”

“What the fuck Stiles? A frog?” Scott replied, turning from the window and looking at Stiles bewilderedly.

“Sorry man, I had like -2 hours of sleep. Kind of going bonkers right now.” Stiles rubbed a hand down his face. Noah thought that was odd, because Stiles had gone to bed at the same time he had. Maybe he had trouble sleeping.

Isaac clapped his hands together. “Okay, introductions are done, now can we _please_ get to the real matter at hand here.”

“And what is that?” Stiles asked.

Scott and Isaac shared a glance that seemed to communicate something. It lasted until Scott looked away, sighing.

“There’s a new werewolf in town.” Noah felt himself stiffen. It appeared that Scott has lost the battle of who-will-be-the-bearer-of-bad-news.

“And said werewolf is in this room.” Stiles blinked. Once, twice, three times. Then opened and closed his mouth.

“Nooo way. Noo way! No-o way! Dude, what?! You’re a werewolf! I should’ve known. Ugh, I totally should’ve figured that one out.” Stiles seemed more excited by the news than anything, and Noah felt a bit of the tension ease from his shoulders.

“Stiles said you’re an argent. Is that why you came here? You got bitten- and-“ Scott trailed off, obviously hesitant to continue. 

“They would’ve forced you to kill yourself, so you came here.” Stiles looked at Isaac like he’d lost all hope, but Noah kind of admired the boy’s blunt-ness. He only wished he could be the same way.

“Well, ya. Pretty much.” Noah nodded, chewing the inside of his lip.

“Geez man, that’s pretty rough. Tough luck.” Stiles came over and patted him on the back.

“Or stupid decisions on my part. Also the fact that I’m the shittiest werewolf hunter ever might have contributed a bit.”

“So you _don’t_ have laser precise accuracy like Allison?” Isaac asked.

“No way.”

“I told you he wasn’t a threat!” Isaac called out, and Stiles whipped a pillow at his head.

“What was that for?” Isaac asked, catching the pillow as it ricocheted off of his nose.

“For being an ignorant asshole. I’ll have you know, Noah kicked the crap out of me yesterday.” Noah couldn’t help but smile at Stiles defending him.

“Ya, but it’s you. Anyone could do that.”

“You’re lucky I’m lazy and there’s no more pillows within arm’s reach, scarf-boy, because that was yet another ignorant asshole comment.”  Stiles quipped.

“Whatever you say. I’m just calling it how it is.” Isaac shrugged.

“For a human, Stiles is pretty tough.” Scott chirped in.

“ _Thanks_  Scott. That’s really flattering. I’m touched.” Stiles grasped at his heart.

“ _For a human_.” Stiles scoffed. “Well guess what, for a werewolf you’re pretty- pretty-“

“Indestructible?”

“Heroic?”

“Handsome?” Isaac and Scott took turns offering up options.

“No! None of the above. You know what, forget it. I’m done with all of you.” Stiles threw his hands up in the air and stalked out.

Noah opened his mouth to object, but Scott reassured him.

“Don’t worry, he’ll back in no time. As soon as we start talking about what we plan on doing, he won’t be able to resist.”

“What _do_ we plan on doing?” Noah replied.

“It’s not so much ‘we’ as ‘you’.” Isaac commented.

“You need to talk to the Argents” was Stiles, who’d sauntered back into the room with a bagel in his hand.

“That was quick.” Scott said.

“So is your mom”

“Not your best”

“I know. Step up your game, Stiles” Stiles took a bite of his bagel and looked rather disappointed in his lack luster comeback.

“You have to talk to them as soon as possible, Noah.” Scott changed the subject back.

“I know. When should we go?” Stiles looked surprised that Noah had agreed so quickly. However, Noah didn’t have much of a choice. He had no where else to turn and although he was dreading it for fear of being wrong about his Uncle's supposed more liberal take on werewolf-hood, he knew he had to do it now.

“We can head over later tonight. I already was going over to Allison’s anyway.” Isaac offered.

Scott looked a little surprised, along with something else that Noah couldn’t quite place, and he couldn’t help but wander what had happened there.

“Okay, are you good with that?” Stiles asked Noah, his voice muffled through the mouthful of bagel he was chewing.

Noah snorted, trying not to laugh at him. “Ya, I guess”

“Sweet” Stiles replied.

“Isaac and I will come by and pick you guys up around 7 and we can go over together. Is that okay? Noah, start practicing what you’re going to say. We have some serious troubles here in Beacon Hills and another werewolf, especially an Argent, could really help us out.” Scott said, looking at Noah hopefully.

“No ya, I totally get it. 7 sounds great.” 

“Ok, see you guys later then.” Scott smiled, looking grateful, and turned to go, Isaac close on his heels.

“Scott, wait one sec.” Scott paused, turning to face Noah, and Isaac looked at him questioningly.

“I was just wondering, how did you know I’m a werewolf? What gave me away, I mean?”

“Your scent.” Scott answered, smiling. “You wreak of wolf.”

“Shouldn’t you know that, being a hunter and all?” Isaac asked.

“I already told you, I’m not a very good hunter.”

“Right. When we stopped by this morning to talk to Stiles about something-" Scott didn't mention what that something was- "we could smell something was off right away. At first, I kind of panicked that Stiles had been bitten, but when we came into his room to find you, we realised." Noah nodded.

"Okay, thanks. Uh, see you later.” Isaac and Scott left, leaving Stiles and Noah alone.

“Well that was eventful” Stiles offered.

“You could say that again.”

“Well that wa-“ Stiles stopped and smiled sheepishly at the withering look Noah shot his way.

“I can’t believe you’re a werewolf! I swear I’m the only human in this entire freaking town! I was hoping I'd found another human buddy- but alas, no.” Stiles flopped down on his bed.

“Honestly, I can’t believe I’m a werewolf either.”

“Well, we’re going to have to practice how you’re going to break the news to Allison and her Dad. I’ll be Allison. Hit me with your best shot.” Stiles feigned flipping hair over his shoulder and then wiggled his hips.

“I’m Allison. I’m great with a bow and arrow. Look at my dimples. I can take care of myself!” Noah laughed because from what he’d heard and what little he could remember, Stiles’ imitation was pretty spot on.

“Uh, hi Allison- long time no see. I actually got bit by a werewolf, believe it or not. Pretty big fuck up eh?” Noah paused. “Oops. Probably shouldn’t swear. I am asking them to spare my life after all.”

“Ya, and also maybe try another tactic other than ‘Oh hey btw got bit by a werewolf... Well see ya’ I think they may need a bit of time to adjust to the fact that you just popped up in Beacon Hills out of the blue.” Stiles ruffled his hair with his fingers while he spoke and Noah had a hard time concentrating.

“Right, ya. Okay. Let’s try again.” Noah replied.

Stiles resumed his Allison stance. “Oh! Noah! What a lovely surprise!” he crowed in a high pitched voice which Noah really hoped wasn’t actually what Allison sounded like.

And so it went, Noah trying different tactics of breaking the news while at the same time trying to find a way to convince them to keep him alive and Stiles being an overly flamboyant version of Allison. Noah hadn’t had as much fun in a long time.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's taken a little while because I've been super busy, but here's Chapter 3. Hopefully Chapter 4 will be up within the next couple of days. In the meantime, enjoy and let me know if you have any feedback!

Luke’s lightsaber had just come to life when the doorbell rang. Stiles let out a long sigh, overdramatically hitting the pause button on _The Empire Strikes Back_ before slowly rising to his feet.

“That’s probably them.” He groaned, shuffling down the hallway. It was obvious that he didn’t want to be separated from his favorite movie (or rather, one part of his favorite series) which also, Stiles had been thrilled to hear, happened to be Noah’s.

“JUST A HEADS UP, IF YOU’RE A SALESMAN, I’M NOT BUYING ANYTHING.” Stiles yelled down the hall as he continued down the hallway at his snail-pace.

“Sorry, but we wanted inside within the next forty years? Thanks though.” As Noah turned to corner to follow Stiles, he found Isaac and Scott already inside, having let themselves in. Isaac had his arms crossed and was looking indignantly at Stiles.

“I could really do without you sass right now, scarf-boy.” Stiles snarked.

“Enough, lets just go before it gets dark. I know those Oni things seem to have disappeared for the time being, but I seriously do not want them coming back.”

Scott clipped Stiles and Isaac each on the back of the head to get them moving. The both begrudgingly followed, Noah close behind.

“What are Oni?” Noah asked.

“Don’t worry about it” Scott said at the same time Stiles said “Demon ninjas”.

“Sounds like I should be worried.” Noah replied.

Isaac shook his head. “They marked Scott and Kira and they seem to be happy, for now at least. I don’t think they’re anything worth worrying about, at least right now.”

“What do you mean ‘marked’?” Noah asked.

“We’ll fill you in later, I promise.” Scott replied for Isaac.

Noah caught Stiles' eye and noticed he had an odd look in them, but then he blinked and it was gone.

“I haven’t even seen one for myself. For all I know, they could be a figment of your guys’ imagination.”

“I’m pretty sure we couldn’t come with giant masked demon samurais on our own, Stiles. The only person with that kind of imagination is you.” Scott replied, holding the door open for everyone to walk through.

“You know what, I bet they’re long lost werewolf souls who died in Beacon Hills centuries ago. Or maybe they’re actually all Kanimas in disguise. Maybe-“

Scott joined Stiles' endless prattling on about Oni possibilities as they got into Stiles’ jeep.

“I bet they’re Peter’s henchmen.” Stiles suggested, and Noah watched as Scott laughed at the idea.

“Is he always like this?” Noah asked Isaac as they got into the backseat.

“Usually worse.” Was Isaac’s dry response, but Noah knew Isaac was really all bark and no bite. He could tell that underneath the façade, he really did care for Stiles, even if it was mainly because Scott did, and Isaac seemed to follow Scott like a lost puppy. Which, Noah figured, he kind of was.

“So Allison knows we’re coming?” Stiles asked between swatting at Scott, who was trying to change the radio station once they had started driving.

“Leave it! This is my favorite song.”

“No it’s not, Stiles.” Scott tried again with renewed vigor.

“How do you know? It could be!” Stiles protested, and Scott rolled his eyes.

“Ya, I let her know once we left your house this morning.” Isaac decided to ignore the battle for the radio and answer Stiles’ original question.

“I don’t know if I can go through with this, guys….” Noah felt a little sick to his stomach. This was a pretty big deal. Scratch that, a massively big deal. Life or death, really.

“You’ll be fine! Just do it exactly how we practiced.” Stiles looked back at him, his hands still on the wheel, and flashed the best Allison-esque smile he could muster, winking exaggeratedly. Noah rolled his eyes.

“Keep your eyes on the road, Stilinski.” Noah shot at him. Stiles laughed but returned his gaze back to the dark road ahead of them.

Once they got to Allison’s apartment building, it was past 7:30, half an hour later than they had planned, because Stiles had insisted they stop for curly fries along the way. Once they pulled into the parking lot, Scott let out a huge belch before hopping out of the car. The three empty containers of curly fries left behind on his seat remained as evidence as to how much the wolf-boy could eat. Stiles and Isaac quickly followed suit, scrambling out of the car and heading towards the door before Stiles realized Noah wasn’t following.

“Go inside, we’ll come in in a bit. Don’t let on about Noah though, yet.” he heard him say to the two boys. Scott and Isaac nodded, then let themselves in the front door. Stiles walked back to the car, then slipped inside the backseat and settled down next to Noah.

“What is it? I thought you’d have developed balls of steel after our prep day. You have nothing to worry about.” Stiles paused, then added “And I- _we-_ Scott, Isaac, and I, Allison and her dad too, we would never let anything happen to you, okay?” Noah almost thought it looked like Stiles was blushing, and the way was looking up at Noah through his eyelashes made the other boy’s heart beat a little faster. No, it was just the light from the streetlamp. _Settle down, Noah._

“I know that. It’s just- talking to them, it’ll make it real, you know? I’ll finally have to admit to myself that they’re really gone- that I’ll never see my family again- that I’m- I’m-“ he felt his voice crack “A monster.”

Stiles forehead creased in concern as he put his hand on the side of Noah’s face.

“Noah, look at me.” When he wouldn’t, Stiles applied a little more pressure, pushing Noah’s face towards him. “Good. Now listen. Some of the greatest people I know are werewolves. My best friend in the whole world is a werewolf, and he’s the furthest thing from a monster I’ve ever seen. Scott would rather cut off his own foot than hurt a fly. He’s the kindest, most selfless guy I know, and he just happens to be able to turn into a hairy beast at the blink of an eye. You? Now you, you’re smart- you’re funny- you’re genuine-“ Noah looked down, unsure of how to react, but Stiles pushed his head back up again. “You even like star wars. If that’s a monster, then sign me up because I want to be one too.” Stiles mouth was open a little, the concern evident on his face, and all Noah wanted to do was kiss him. Instead, he smiled sheepishly at him and raised his hand to place it on top of Stiles’.

“Thank you.” He whispered. Stiles grinned, and then seemed to realize what he was doing. Noah felt his stomach drop as watched the gears turn behind Stiles’ eyes and his gaze shift, his hand dropping.

So much for that. Noah suppressed the sigh building up inside him and instead pushed open the door.

“Lets do this thing.”

***

“Noah?” Chris Argent asked when Stiles and Noah entered the room. Chris stared at them, a dumbfounded look on his face.

“Wait, Noah…? Noah!” Allison flung herself at him, her arms wrapping around his neck as she hugged him tightly. Noah was caught a little off guard, but eased up after a second and reciprocated the hug, wrapping his arms around his cousin.

“I can’t believe it’s you! I haven’t see you in so long! I’ve missed you so much, all the times we used to have- How are you? “ her words came out in a continuous stream, but were suddenly cut off by Chris cutting in.

“Has something happened? Is everyone okay?” he asked, stepping closer, concern etching his forehead.

“Ya, everyone’s fine. Everything’s fine, for the most part.” He replied, watching Chris’ shoulders ease ever so slightly.

Allison stepped back. “What do you mean for the most part? Where have you been?” A crease formed between her eyebrows as she spoke.

"Uncle Matthew thought we were going soft, Allison. Remember? He didn’t want his kids around a bad influence.” Chris answered for him.

“No dad, I don’t remember. I had hardly any of idea of this whole hunter thing until recently, if you don’t recall.” Allison snapped back. That was news for Noah. He’d known he was a hunter for almost as long as he could remember. Hadn’t he and Allison talked about it when they would play together back in the day? Surely they had. But now that he thought about it, he wasn’t so sure.

Their reunion was interrupted by Stiles clearing his throat, reminding them that he, Scott, and Isaac were still in the room and simultaneously getting Noah back on track.

“Actually, I have something kind of important to tell you… You may want to sit down. Or stand, whichever. It’s just kinda, ya know, hard to deal with… I don’t know.” Noah was rambling, but he found he couldn’t stop. He pulled at his sleeves to seem like he was doing something.

The two Argents waited for a second, but no one said anything. Allison hesitated, then turned to her dad. “We’re fine standing. Tell us Noah, please.”

Noah took a deep breath. “Okay- well, I, uh… I’m… I got bit.” He rushed the last part, as if he were to keep it in his mouth too long it might poison him.

“By a werewolf.” He added as an afterthought, then smacked himself because _duh._ What else would he have gotten bitten by? A mosquito?

Allison opened and closed her mouth a few times, and Chris looked suddenly very, very sad. It took Noah a second, but he realized it was probably because of his wife. His father had told Noah that Allison’s mother had gotten bitten, and a result, had killed herself. It had completely slipped Noah’s mind until now. And he too felt a wave of sadness wash over him. His aunt- if he could even call her that since he hadn’t seen her for years before she died- had been a kind woman, and he remembered her always bringing him and Allison popsicles in the summer.

“Is that why you came here? Matthew kicked you out?” Chris asked, but when he saw the look on Noah’s face, his own transformed in horror. “No. No. He didn’t. He didn’t ask you to-“ Noah shook his head before Chris assumed the worst; that his brother had asked his own son to kill himself.

Allison nodded. “Your dad doesn’t know.” They always had a thing for that- he and Allison. They could often tell what the other was thinking.

Noah watched as Chris started to pace, thinking things over. Allison stayed rooted to the spot, and Noah noticed that Scott, Isaac and Stiles had somehow slipped out during the conversation. Though he was now alone with the Argents, Noah figured it was probably for the best.

All of the sudden, Noah was wrapped into another hug from Allison. This time, however, it is more desperate, and Noah could see the tears streaming down her face.

“We won’t let anything happen to you, Noah. Not after what happened to my mom.” She whispered into his shirt.

 “You’re safe with us.” Chris nods curtly, but Noah can see the suppressed emotion behind his eyes, and it is enough. Noah can feel wetness on his cheeks as Allison pulls away.

“Thank you so, so much. I won’t be a problem. I didn’t know what to do, I just needed somewhere to go.” Noah felt the stress of the past few days ease a little. He had had no reason to worry in the first place after all. This was his family.

“It was smart to come to us. We’ll protect you.” Allison says, crossing her arms. He can tell she knows how much it means to him, that they’re accepting the curse that he is now plagued with, the curse that his own father would rather see him dead than have.

“You can stay with us, Noah. We can get you enrolled at school- figure out what to do about your family- things will work out.” Chris adds.

Noah can’t help the smile that splits his face. Maybe things _will_ work out. He can only hope.

“How long have you been here, anyway?” Allison adds as an after thought.

“Uh, a couple days… I stayed at Stiles’ last night.” He can feel himself blush, and Allison raised her eyebrows.

“Oh” is all she says, and Noah is grateful.

“Well, you can stay with us from now on. We can get the guestroom ready for you in no time, and then you can get some rest. You seriously look like you could use some sleep.” Chris said as he rummaged in his drawer for something, and Noah nodded his head in agreement. It was true, he knew he looked like death. But that was partially also due to the fact that he looked perpetually tired.

Chris ceased rummaging and emerged with a small flip phone in his hand.

“Aha! It’s not much, but you can use it if you need to contact any of us. Scott is just one call away if you have any… wolf troubles.” Chris handed him the phone.

“Thank you.” Noah looked at the phone resting in his palm.

Just then a knock sounded on the door, followed closely by Scott, Stiles and Isaac re-entering the room. Noah's mouth quirked up at Stiles jerkily stopping after he entered, causing Scott to walk right into him. 

“So, all is well?” Stiles asked.

“Yes, it is, as a matter of fact. Noah will be staying with us from now on, and he’s going to get enrolled at school. We’ll figure it out from there.” Allison replied.

“Sweet!” Stiles cried, doing a little fist pump. Scott and Isaac grinned, obviously also happy to see things had turned out alright.

“Right, well, it’s getting late, and Noah needs rest. All of you go home and you can meet up again in the morning.” Chris said, ushering the teenagers out of his office.

“Ya, we better be on our way. My mom will be wondering why we missed dinner.” Scott agreed, thanking Mr. Argent and hugging Allison goodbye. He stood for a second, looking at everyone a little awkwardly.

“… I’ll go wait in the car.” He turned and headed off in the direction of the elevator.

Chris stood for a second before nodding at Isaac and Stiles and disappearing into his office. Noah was confused for a second before he realized everyone was giving Isaac and Allison some alone time. Oh.

“Come on” he whispered to Stiles, motioning down the hallway.

Stiles followed him, and they stopped in front of the elevator.

“Well, this is where I thank you for the fifty billionth time.” Noah said.

Stiles smiled. “No need, you being safe is all the reward I need.” Noah’s heart did a little flutter.    

“Oh hey, what’s your number? I’ll program it into my phone- just in case I need anything, or something.” Noah pulled the flip phone from his pocket and Stiles took it, his deft fingers typing in his contact in record speed.

“I’ll text you in a bit to make sure you got home safe.” Noah said, smirking.

Stiles laughed. “Okay, I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“ISAAC! STOP CANOODLING AND LETS GO!” Stiles paused to yell down the hall. A small groan followed and the two boys both stifled laughs in response.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Noah asked.

“Definitely.” Stiles assured him.

Stiles went in for a hug, Noah for a handshake. They laughed, pulled back, and then Stiles went in for a handshake and Noah for a hug.

“Agh fuck it.” Stiles said, grabbing Noah and pulling him into a giant bear hug. His surprisingly muscular arms wrapped around Noah, just about causing him to melt into a puddle right on the Argent's hardwood floor.

They held each other for what Noah thought was a second longer than necessary before letting go.

Isaac appeared then. “Let’s go, I’m starving.” Stiles cleared his throat, taking a step back from Noah, and Noah pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“See you Isaac! Stiles! And Noah, I’m trying to find you some sheets right now, but I might be a while. Make yourself at home.” Allison called out.

“Okay!” Noah called back at the same time that both Stiles and Isaac yelled “See ya’s” back.

Stiles and Isaac got into the elevator and Stiles pushed the button. Noah stood there and waved. As the elevators started to shut, Stiles jokingly called out “I’ll miss you Noah! We can have another sleepover soon!” Noah laughed.

“I can’t wait!” the last thing he saw was Stiles’ devilish grin as the elevator doors clanged shut.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Noah share a late night phone call; Noah gets his first taste of the infamous Beacon Hills High School.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's chapter 4. I know I took a long time to write this, I'm sooorrry. The next chapter will be up sooner, I promise. I think this one's a bit longer? I tried to make it longer to compensate for my tardiness. Keep the feedback coming!

An odd noise woke Noah from the fretful sleep he’d fallen into. Letting out a soft groan, he rolled over and opened his eyes slowly, horribly confused. The noise came again, and it took Noah another few seconds to realize it was the phone that Chris had given him vibrating. He chuckled to himself. He could almost imagine Stiles saying _Took you long enough_  in response, his smile stretching his face. He mentally checked himself. Noah was thinking about the freckled boy too much and if he didn’t stop soon, he was going to develop a serious problem. Even if said freckled boy had a really nice ass and liked star wars almost as much as he did. It would still be a problem, and Noah didn't need more problems.

He flipped open the phone, only to reveal a text from Stiles. Speak of the devil.

_I can’t sleep._

Noah huffed and typed a reply. It took him a while, since he had to press each key multiple times to get the right letter. Damn flip phones.

_Now that makes two of us. Thanks for spreading the misery._

Stiles replied almost instantly.

_Shit, oh man. I didn’t think, sorry!!!_

Noah chuckled.

_Don’t worry, I wasn’t sleeping well anyway. What’s keeping you up?_

Stiles took a minute to reply. Noah wondered what the hold up was, and worried that he’d crossed a boundary or something. He shut down the thought. _Stop overthinking, you shouldn’t care. You’re just talking to your buddy. Who worries why their bro isn’t replying?_

 _Can I call you?_ Came Stiles’ reply. Noah felt his eyebrows raise.

He’d just have to keep his voice down. He didn’t particularly want to piss off his new hosts on the first night.

At the first hint of a ring Noah whipped open the phone. _Shit_. Hopefully that hadn’t woken anybody up.

“Hello?” he whispered.

“Noah! It’s nice to hear your voice” Noah felt his jaw fall open.

Stiles cleared his throat “Uh, I mean- I’m glad you’re not dead.” _Nice save, Stiles._ Noah thought to himself, feeling a smile spread across his face. His smile disappeared when he realized that probably _was_ what he’d meant.

“So what’s up?” Noah decided to change the subject, hoping to avoid any awkwardness.

“I don’t know- it’s really weird. I just feel all jumpy. I fell asleep for a bit, but then a nightmare woke me up. I keep having these nightmares lately, all the same. I don’t know why. If I’m being honest here, Noah, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks.”

That would explain the dark shadows under his eyes. Noah had noticed them when he’d woken up at Stiles’ house. A thought occurred to him then. When Noah had gotten up, Stiles had already been awake. Had he slept at all? Of course he had. There was no way someone could be that hyper-active without any sleep.

“That’s freaky. What are the dreams? Has something been bothering you lately?”

“I-“ it sounded like Stiles was about to say something, then stopped himself. “It’s stupid really, I should just drink some warm milk and count sheep or something.”

Noah frowned into the phone. Stiles was hiding something. He hadn’t answered one of his questions, and had tried instead to cover it up with humor, something Noah was beginning to see Stiles did a lot.

Stiles sighed “I don’t know what it is, but I don’t have a good feeling about it. I haven’t really told anyone about it either, so don’t go telling Allison or something. I don’t really know why I told you, actually. Something about you, I don’t know. You’re comforting.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Noah hoped Stiles couldn’t sense his blush through the phone.

“Not really. Could we talk about other stuff?”

So they did. They talked about music, about their favourite movies, debated over who was the bigger nerd, compared their crazy elementary school teachers. They didn’t talk about their families, a topic that seemed to be touchy for the both of them. They didn’t talk about Stiles' lack of sleep or of Noah’s wolfy-ness. They talked for hours about mundane, seemingly boring things, but Noah found them enthralling nonetheless, simply because of the way Stiles spoke- like everything was incredibly exciting and interesting, like the world was at his fingertips. Noah liked the way Stiles’ mind worked, always trying to figure things out. He was smart, exceedingly so, and Noah liked that too. He liked the way Stiles voice sounded through the phone, soft and sleepy and so _real._ He realized that in fact, he _liked_ Stiles.

The thought made him kind of sick to the stomach, but at the same time, kind of excited.

He didn’t know for sure whether Stiles was straight. It seemed like Scott certainly was, and from what little interaction he’d seen between him and Allison, he figured there’d been something between the two of them.

Noah was usually was pretty good at guessing a person’s sexuality; generally, he could tell within minutes of meeting them. But Stiles was hard to read. His flamboyant actions and strange occasional comments contrasted with his rather lacking fashion sense and the look in his eyes when Scott had mentioned someone named Lydia.

Noah doubted someone named Lydia was a boy. He also felt a stab of jealousy towards her. She clearly meant something to Stiles, and from the look in his amber eyes when her name had been mentioned, she meant more than just a friend.

Nonetheless, Stiles could be bi. Or perhaps Lydia was his sister and Noah had assumed wrong. Noah was pretty sure Stiles didn’t have any siblings, however, because the only people in his house the night before had been the two of them and Stiles’ father. Noah could always hope, though.

***

When Noah pried open his eyes in the morning, sunlight blinded him, coming in through the slats in the blinds.

“Wha-“ when he sat up, something stayed attached to his cheek. He peeled the phone off, then put it to his ear. He could hear Stiles’ soft breathing on the other end, deep with sleep. He took pleasure in knowing that he’d been able to lull Stiles to sleep. Or bore him to death. Noah could hear him breathing, so he decided to believe the former.

Glancing at the clock, which read 8:15, Noah let out a little gasp. Chris had told him to wake up around 7:30, since school started at 8:30 and he had to register. His uncle had seemed reluctant to enroll him at first, letting Noah know that by no stretch of the imagination should he feel obligated to go to school after what he’d been through. Noah had insisted, however, claiming that he wanted something to do, to keep his spirits up.

In reality, Noah could think of a billion other things he’d rather do than go to school. But Stiles would be at school, and Noah wanted to be where Stiles was. So what if it was kind of needy? He figured he had every right to be, since he’d been turned into a freaking werewolf. As well, he liked learning. Just, high school- the people, the teachers, the hours- none of it really worked for him.

Noah picked up the phone. “Stiles, you might want to wake up.” He had avoided hanging up, which came in use, seeing as school was staring in fifteen minutes. When Stiles didn’t respond, and instead made a little humming noise in his sleep, sending a wave of endearment through Noah that he was able to shrug it off, he yelled into the phone “STILES”

“Wha?” he could hear the thud as Stiles’ body collided with the floor, imagined his long limbs flailing. He’d never met anyone who flailed that much.

Stiles found the phone again.

“What is it? Did we fall asleep on the phone? Is everything okay? Is someone dead? Am I dead?”

“You’re not dead, but you will be soon, because school starts in fifteen minutes.”

Stiles chuckled into the phone. “I don’t know what school you went to in... wherever you’re from, but at Beacon Hills, they’re happy as long as you show up. There’s been so many homicides, you know, they just want you alive.”

“Chicago. That’s where I’m from. And I went to a shit-hole of a private school, so I can see why they might be a bit more relaxed here.”

“Right well, even if it doesn’t matter if I’m late, today’s still your first day, right? You better get going.”

“Ya, I guess I should…” Noah was reluctant to hang up the phone.

“I’ll see you there!” Stiles chirped. “Oh, and thanks for talking to me last night. Our conversation was really interesting, and you got me to sleep, so you should get an award or something because that has been pretty much impossible lately. My internal gratitude, I’m forever in your service.”

Noah laughed. “Whatever you say, you probably just were so over tired you fell asleep on your own.”

Stiles turned serious. “No, I mean it, thank you. It was all you, thanks.”

Noah felt himself flush. “Anytime, Stiles.”

“How about tonight? Will you call me again?” He almost sounded shy asking it, and Noah’s stomach did a little flip.

“Let me check my calendar-“ he paused, pretending to check his calendar- “Looks like I’m free.”

“Glad you could squeeze me in. NOW GET TO CLASS, YOU DELINQUENT.”

Noah laughed again, then hung up and stood to find his jeans, t-shirt, hoodie, and jacket all clean and folded at the end of his bed.

“Huh” he murmured to himself, assuming it was Allison’s doing. He pulled on the clothes over the boxers he’d worn to bed.

He spared another glance at the sun coming in through the window and then fished in his still damp backpack for his camera, unable to resist any longer. He hadn’t taken a picture for a few days, and when he saw a possible frame, his fingers itched to take the photograph so bad he sometimes had no choice but to obey.

Finally finding the old canon, he pulled it out and uncapped the lens, adjusting it to fit the lighting and then snapping the picture. He lowered his camera, staring at the dust motes in the air, and realized he was stalling.

So what if he didn’t particularly want to go to school? He was bad at making friends. He was awkward and weird and now _especially_ different, what with the werewolf-ness and all.

Noah roused himself and stuffed his camera back into his bag, but not before ensuring the cap was securely back on. The last thing he wanted was for his precious camera to get harmed in anyway.

He pulled on his jacket and stuck his thumbs through the holes that he always poked in his sleeves. He didn’t know why he did it, but it had become a habit of his. Maybe he’d start a trend. _Ya, like that would happen_.

Noah grabbed his bag and headed into the hallway. He paused for a second, then walked down the stairs.

“Well look who finally woke up!” Chris welcomed him warmly, despite his sarcastic greeting, his smile lighting up his face.

“Sorry- I, uh, I didn’t mean to oversleep- I don’t know what happened.” He rubbed the back of his head.

“No worries, I was beginning to wonder if you’d taken my advice.” Chris looked Noah up and down, then added “I see you’re ready to go, should we head out? Allison left earlier with her friend Lydia. She wanted to wait for you but we didn’t know if you were going to school or not, so it’s just the two of us. We can get you something to eat along the way.”

Noah smiled “Sure, sounds great.”

“And maybe some coffee, you look exhausted.” Chris added as he grabbed his keys and headed to the door, Noah following.

Noah thought it was odd that he still looked tired all the time. Wasn’t getting turned into a werewolf supposed to make you suddenly more healthy and glowing? It certainly hadn’t had that effect on him. If anything, he looked more exhausted.

“Ya, I had some trouble falling asleep. It’s nothing, though.” The trouble he’d had falling asleep had been in the form of a teenage boy with beautiful hands and messy hair who had a knack for making bad jokes, but he didn’t need to mention that to his uncle.

“Well if you need anything tonight, let me know.” Chris glanced over at him earnestly, and Noah felt a stab of fondness towards the older man. It was amazing how much he cared for him even after what had happened. He knew his father would never act this way, even when Noah had been human.

“It’s nothing, really. Thank you though, this is all so kind of you-“

“No worries, Noah. We’re family. Even if you turn into a dog whenever it’s a full moon, you’re still my nephew.” The corners of Chris’ eyes crinkled when he smiled.

“Even though we’re sworn enemies.” Noah reminded him.

“We’re not sworn enemies. Our family is supposed to protect. Some of us have just blown things a bit out of proportion.” By _some of us_ he meant his father, his sister, and now his brother. And by _a bit_ he meant a lot. The whole situation must have been hard on Chris as well.

They got in the car and were silent as the older Argent backed out of the driveway and onto the street.

“Where do you want to stop for breakfast?” Chris asked once they were well on their way. It wasn’t particularly awkward, the silence, but Noah welcomed the question anyway.

“I don’t really care, you can choose. You know the town, after all.” Noah replied.

“Alright, I guess we’ll just go to Finks, their coffee is easily the best in town.” Chris made a right turn and Noah fiddled with a loose thread on his sleeve.

Noah ordered a sesame seed bagel and black coffee from Finks and then tried to insist upon paying for it, but was secretly relieved when Chris wouldn’t allow it, because he didn’t actually have any money.

Once they pulled into the school parking lot, Chris waited before getting out.

“Hold on, Noah. Are you sure you want to do this? You can wait- maybe enroll at another school… Beacon Hills is notoriously dangerous, you know.”

“I do know, Stiles filled me in on its tendency for homicides. I’m sure, though. I want to do this.” He nodded as he said it, as if to convince himself more than his uncle.

“Alright…” Chris seemed reluctant, his face stony, but got out of the car anyway.

They walked through the empty parking lot to what Noah assumed was the main office. It was 8:37 and school had started. He was going to be late to his first class, but that was a sacrifice he was more than willing to make.

“Hello, how can I help you?” an overly perky woman with dyed blonde hair and an odd accent asked when they arrived in the office. Noah watched her look him over with a rather put off expression, taking in his rumpled appearance and the dark circles under his eyes.

“I’d like to enroll my nephew. He just moved here from Florida.” Chris replied smoothly, handing over a stack of paper work. Not true, but anyway. Noah was from Chicago, a long ways away from Florida.

“Do you have all the necessary paperwork?” how could someone sound so happy and simultaneously have such a dead look in their eyes? Noah scrutinized her, then had the urge to take a picture of the dead-eyed woman, but resisted. She might see it as creepy, and he wouldn’t want the first person he met at his new school to hate him, even if it seemed she kind of did already.

“Yes, I believe we do.” Noah was pretty sure they didn’t, but he also knew that his uncle had a particularly fantastic printer and an endless stream of software for creating fake legal documents that his own father often borrowed, and he wasn’t overly concerned.

“I’ll be right back.” The woman disappeared, and Noah started to wander the room, glancing around. He picked up an outdated magazine and put it back down, then stared at a poster about ‘options after secondary school- where are _you_ headed?’. He took a picture of the one of the chair legs against the doorframe because he liked the way it looked, and just as he was lining up to take another photograph of the empty hallway the secretary returned.

“Looks like everything is in order. I’ve registered him, now if you would just go in and meet the principal once he’s finished with his phone call and I’ll go print out your schedule. Does that sound good?” she re-arranged some things on her desk and Noah wondered why, since nothing was out of place.

“Sounds great, thank you.” Chris replied, smiling and taking a seat in one of the worn waiting chairs. Noah nodded his appreciation, adding a little smile, and took a seat next to his uncle.

They only had to wait a few moments before a balding man in his late forties stuck his head out of an office.

“Noah Argent? Please come in.” Chris motioned Noah to go and followed behind him and into the dimly lit room, the only light a small lamp on the principal’s desk. The shades were all drawn, and Noah didn’t like the effect the lamp cast on the walls. He was still holding his camera, and he played with the strap absentmindedly as the principal rose.

“Lovely to meet you Noah, I’m glad to hear we have another Argent joining our ranks here at Beacon Hills!” the man leaned forward and stuck out his hand, the other hand reaching down and flattening his tie to his bulginh stomach to keep it from dangling. Noah hated when people did that, but shrugged it off and grasped the principal’s sweaty hand.

“I’m Mr. Brunato, by the why, but you can call me Mr. B. Most of the kids do, anyway. I’m pretty new here myself.” Noah figured that was probably because the previous principals had been killed off.

“Hi Mr. B, I’m thrilled to be here.” A lie.

The man smiled condescendingly at him, then blatantly turned to Chris as he added “And if you’re anything like your cousin Allison, I’m sure everyone will be delighted to have you.” Noah saw the muscle in his uncle’s jaw twitch, but didn’t think the other man caught it.

Chris just smiled in reply, then said “Well, now that we're all acquainted, I’d better get going. I have a meeting to get to.” Which Noah knew was a lie as well, because Argents didn’t need to go to meetings for their line of work.

“Ah well yes, lovely meeting you. I should probably get back to work as well. See you around school Noah, stay out of trouble!” the principal chortled, taking a seat once again.

“He certainly will” Chris replied, sending Noah a look that read _you better_ as they exited the office. On the way out, Noah took his schedule from the blonde woman, and once in the hallway Chris put his hand on Noah’s shoulder.

“You have the phone I gave you, right?” At Noah’s nod, he continued. “If you need anything, contact me. Or Allison, or Scott or Stiles- any of them. Try to keep a relatively low profile. And Noah?” he leaned closer then, his mouth moving closer to his nephew’s ear. “Don’t slip up. As the principal said, behave yourself. I seriously do not want you getting put in danger” Noah nodded. “Good. See you tonight, have a good day.” And with that he left, leaving Noah standing in the hallway, alone, clutching his camera and his schedule.

He looked down, but didn’t have time to absorb anything the timetable said before a bell rang and students came hurtling out of classrooms, some jostling him in their rush to get past. He’d already missed first period, so Noah decided it was probably best if he head to his locker, so as to blend in with the crowd and not get trampled in the process. He looked at the locker numbers, then at the number he’d scribbled on his hand after the blonde woman had made him pick a locker. Following the numbers as they decreased- 147, 135, 122… 114, he finally got to his. He stopped and fiddled with the lock until finally it opened. He pulled off his backpack and slipped it inside, then followed with his jacket and hoodie. After spending almost a week in California and freezing his ass off the whole time, he’d figured he’d come to school prepared, only to find it sweltering hot.

Just as he was adding his camera, someone jostled into him, and Noah crashed into the lockers, bracing himself just in time to prevent his face being smashed in, and almost dropping the camera in the process. Furious, he felt his eyes start to glow and the his fingertips start to itch, hinting at the change. He suppressed it, thinking instead of anything else- and settled on Stiles’ easy smile. He pushed himself off the lockers, turning to face the culprit. He met a pair of hard blue eyes.

“Sorry there, little buddy.” The guy sneered, running a hand over his blonde buzzcut. “Didn’t see you.” He drawled. Noah smiled sarcastically at him.

“Maybe be more careful next time, _little buddy_.” He replied, spitting out the last words like venom. He had been pushed around at his old school, for being smaller, for being quiet, for being weird. It wasn't going to happen again.

“OOOOH!” the guy’s cronies crooned behind him.

The guy lifted his hands in mock-surrender.

“Of course, of course. No hard feelings, I hope?” his words spoke a different story than his eyes, which cut into Noah like shards of glass.

He ruffled Noah’s hair a little too hard. Noah was about to say something before he was cut off.

“Let’s go Flash.” A girl with long strawberry blonde hair came to stand at the guy’s elbow, an unamused look on her face. Her flowery skirt and high heels set off his dark jacket and buzzed head. He seemed to soften at her presence, but still shot a look at Noah as he retreated. The girl glanced back at him for a moment, and she almost looked apologetic, but Noah wasn’t sure because she looked away almost as quickly as she’d appeared. Up ahead, he saw Allison join up with the group, and let out a sigh. How could Allison be friends with such a moron? Perhaps the girl with the strawberry blonde hair was Lydia, the friend that had given her a ride to school... The one that Stiles cared about.

As he returned to his locker, Noah glanced down the hall and noticed Stiles standing at his locker. Speak of the devil, again. They made eye contact, and Stiles smiled, winking at him. Noah smiled and looked down quickly, partially because he was blushing and partially because he hoped Stiles hadn’t seen the interaction with Flash.

Stiles put his books in his locker and walked over to him. By now, the hallway was almost empty. Class had almost started.

“So, what’s the dealio? What classes do you have?” Stiles asked, taking the paper containing Noah’s schedule from his hands.

“AP English, AP Chem, Lunch, AP Physics, ok wow, impressive… History with Mr. Yukimura! Hey, I have that too! With Scott! Man, we’re going to have a blast!” He clapped Noah on the back, and Noah flinched.

“Woah, sorry dude. I didn’t mean to spook you.”

Noah laughed. “No worries, I’m just a bit on edge, new school and all.” A small white lie never hurt anyone.

“I totally feel ya man.” _I wish I could feel you,_ Noah felt like saying, but obviously didn’t.

“I’ll walk you to Chem, if you want. I have math on the same floor.”

“Sounds good to me, just let me grab my stuff.” Noah decided to put his camera in his backpack after all. He didn’t want to risk losing it. He slung it over his shoulder and tried to slam his locker shut to no avail. He tried a couple more times before Stiles took over for him, closing it with ease.

Noah smiled gratefully. “Thanks, I’m obviously a little incompetent.”

“Not with that course load you’re not.” Stiles laughed.

They headed down the hall together, picking up a conversation about how Stiles was wondering who Noah would have for Chemistry now that some other teacher was gone. Noah noticed their hands brush more than once on their way up the stairs, and smiled in spite of himself. He thought the day might turn out to be a pretty good one.

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The remainder of Noah's first day at school goes by uneventfully until Scott and co. fill him in on the recent events that have taken place in Beacon Hills. Later, the second of Noah and Stiles' late night phone calls takes a frightening turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 5!!! Enjoy, I'll be updating again soon. Please keep feedback coming, anything and everything is much appreciated (:

The day went on blissfully uneventfully. After the past few whirlwind weeks, Noah was relieved to have a day to act like a normal teenager. Stiles had invited him to join the group for lunch, and Noah had spent the hour wedged between him and Allison. He hadn’t even thought of packing a lunch, but the curly fries he’d bought from the cafeteria (after borrowing money from Allison, which he felt horrible about, but his stomach wasn’t complaining) hit the spot much better than any packed sandwich could have.

When he’d sat down at the table with his food, he’d been met with raised eyebrows.

“What? What is it?” He glanced around, concerned.

Scott laughed. “I’m beginning to think you and Stiles are the same person. When he gets back, watch out. Curly fries are his favourite.”

Sure enough, when Stiles returned with his own plate of curly fries, he still stole a good chunk of Noah’s whenever he thought the other boy wasn’t looking. Normally Noah would’ve objected, but he didn’t mind Stiles stealing his food, even if they were his favourite.

“Man, you have the greatest taste. Star Wars- Curly fries- I think you’re the only person in this town who likes the same things as me. Where have you been all my life?” Stiles crowed once they were on their way back to class. The group had split up once lunch was over, Allison and Isaac heading in one direction, Lydia and Scott the other. Stiles had assured Noah he would show him to class despite Noah’s protests.

Just then, they got to Noah’s Physics class.

“Have fun! I don’t know who’s in this class, but I’m sure you’ll make friends just fine.” Stiles winked at him, giving him a little nudge towards the door. Noah highly doubted that, but went along with it.

“I’ll see you in History?” Noah asked in response.

“You bet!” Stiles grinned and spun around, heading off down the hall. When he reached the corner he paused, placing a hand on the wall and looking back at Noah, a massive smile on his face. Noah’s stomach fluttered.

He steeled himself and went into the classroom, five minutes late. Noah was used to it, however. From the age of sixteen, once he’d started driving himself to school instead of getting a ride, he’d been late for almost everything he attended. It was a habit he didn’t know how he'd formed, nor how exactly to get rid of. He’d decided to embrace it long ago.

Physics was rather excruciating, the teacher re-writing more or less the same examples of projectile motion problems on the board, one after another, and Noah had to try his hardest not to let his eyes slip closed. It took a lot of effort, but he managed to get through the class without falling asleep. He’d zoned out for most of the lesson, but seeing as he’d been practicing projectile motion problem sets since he was in the eight grade, he figured he’d be alright.

Next up was history with his new friends, something that made him kind of excited, actually. He’d only been at Beacon Hills High School for a couple of hours and already was friends with a group of cool people, unlike at his previous school, where his only friend had been himself and whatever music was playing through the headphones he used as an escape from reality. He realized he hadn’t taken his headphones out of his bag the entire day, and mentally patted himself on the back for it. _Good job Noah, you’ve socialized for once._

“Let’s GOOOO” Stiles appeared out of nowhere once Noah was out the door of his classroom, nearly quivering where he stood. Scott was with him, and Isaac too.

Noah laughed. “Alright, you lead the way.”

Stiles started off, marching ahead of the other boys. Noah fiddled with his camera strap, pausing to take a picture of the staircase before they ascended it.

“So how’s Beacon Hills treating you, Noah?” Scott asked.

“It’s really good, actually. A lot different from my old school.”

Isaac snorted. “It’s a lot different from most schools. Homocides… Kidnappings… Sacrifices…”

Noah raised his eyebrows, sputtering a little. “All- All that happened here?” Isaac and Scott nodded. “Shit.”

Scott laughed. “Ya, that and much more. It’s not so bad though, just don’t come here at night.”

Noah nodded in agreement, taking note.

“Hurry up!” Stiles called, halfway down the hall. “You are all _so slow_ ”

“Shut up Stiles! We’re coming” Scott said good-naturedly, picking up his pace.

***

Once the group reached the History classroom, Allison and Lydia were already waiting outside.

“You’re all in this class?” Noah asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

“Ya, pretty sweet right?” Stiles replied, nodding at Scott while he said it, who was holding the door open for everyone.

They walked inside and took seats near the back of the class. Noah sat between Stiles and Allison, much to his pleasure.

“Hello everyone, glad to see all of your smiling faces today” the teacher said, coming to stand at the front of the room. He wore a suit and had a round, kind face. He beamed at the class, his slanted eyes crinkling at the corners. Noah liked him already.

“As some of you may have noticed, we appear to have a new student!” and to Noah’s utter horror, the teacher brandished towards him, letting his hands fall and clasp back together in front of him.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself to the class?” Noah could feel the blush creeping up his neck as he rose and cleared his throat. He slouched, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

“Uh, hey. Hi, I’m uh, Noah.” He gave a weak smile and half wave, then dropped back into his seat. Stiles clapped him on the back, chuckling under his breath.

“Hi Noah, I’m Mr. Yukimura. Class, say hi.”

A few grumbled hellos came to meet Mr. Yukimura’s prompt, but not much else. Noah hadn’t expected anything more.

Mr. Yukimura smiled half heartedly, looking slightly disappointed by the class’ lack of excitement.

“Well,” he said, turning to write on the blackboard, “Today we’re going to be starting in on a unit on World War II, a subject I know quite a great deal on. Settle in, class, this is going to get interesting.”

Noah seriously doubted that.

“AGHEM” Noah started at an awful sound, which he figured was probably meant to be an over exaggerated throat clearing. Stiles tapped his shoulder.  
Noah turned, and Stiles nodded down to his lap, miming typing on a phone. Albeit much more erratically than anyone could possibly type, but the point got across.

Noah cleared his throat, nodding his understanding. Stiles grinned as Noah fished out his phone and checked the one message he had.

_We’re all going to meet up at the picnic tables at the back of the school after class. Scott is going to explain things to u_

Noah typed a quick reply

_Ok. What things?_

Stiles reply came almost instantaneously.

_LOT’S of things. Get ready for story time_

Noah glanced at him sideways, and Stiles smirked, looking pleased with himself, before turning back his attention to Mr. Yukimura. Noah followed his lead, playing with the lens cap of his camera as he listened to his history teacher recount the main causes of World War II.

Once the final bell had rang, the group of friends did indeed make their way to the picnic tables (which Noah previously had had no idea existed). They all dropped their bags on the ground and took seats, leaving Noah standing there. The group of teenagers all had gone about it so easily. It had been evident it was a regular thing, and that they each had their own spots. To his dismay, Noah noted that Stiles sat beside Lydia.

“Make room for Noah. He should sit across from me too, because he’s the only one who really needs to hear this.” Scott commanded, and everyone shuffled to make room.

“Thanks guys.” Noah was a little embarrassed, but took the spot offered to him.

“So, where do we start.” Scott folded his hands in front of him and smiled.

“Start from the dead body.” Was Stiles overly eager reply. Noah glanced at him questioningly- and perhaps a little alarmedly- , and Stiles simply grinned at him in response.

“Ok, sure. The dead body…” Scott dove in, recounting the incredible events that had occurred in Beacon Hills to a rather select group of teenagers and their few companions over the course of the past two years, with Stiles adding in irrelevant details every chance he got, Lydia correcting just about everything Scott said, Isaac making occasional dry remarks, and Allison being the sole provider of actually helpful extra information.

Scott informed Noah of how he got the bite, courtesy a crazy alpha who they killed but later came back to life and is now kind of allies with them, of Derek Hale, who’s entire werewolf family burned to death in a fire set by Noah’s own aunt, Derek’s subsequent warrant(s) for murder, and a murderous lizard who was also an arrogant jock by the name of Jackson, who used to go to Beacon Hills and even dated Lydia. When the conversation turned to Lydia’s ex, Noah noticed Stiles stiffen. He couldn’t help but feel both a little jealous at Stiles’ jealousy, but also a little bad for his new friend.

Scott continued, recounting Noah’s crazy Grandfather, whom his father had cut off contact with years ago and Noah hadn’t spoken to in years, Lydia’s unique Banshee abilities, an entire pack of alphas who took up residence in Beacon Hills, a series of human sacrifices that turned out to be the work of an evil druid disguised as a teacher, and the consequential sacrifice of Stiles, Scott, and Allison themselves to save their parents. Luckily, it turned out, they had survived.

“Oh, and now we’re all going bat-shit crazy because of it!” Stiles chirped in.

“It’s not even that bad Stiles, you’re all fine. Stop overreacting.” Lydia commented, gazing at her nails, her lovely features displaying an unamused expression.

Stiles gaped at her. “Just because you can’t remember walking around the woods naked for 3 days doesn’t mean other people can’t be crazy too!”

Lydia shot him an indignant look and went back to examining her nails.

“Crazy or not, it’s not exactly all sunshine and rainbows, what we’re going through right now.” Allison said, lowering her voice slightly as a student walked past.

“Remind me again why we’re retelling _top secret supernatural events_ in the middle of school property surrounded by masses of unsuspecting humans?” Isaac asked, leaning in to look at everyone.

“No one’s listening, and it’s not like anyone would believe what we’re saying. They’d think we’re talking about a stupid online game or something.” Scott replied.

“Hey!” Stiles cried, and Noah barked out a laugh.

“So Noah, what do you think? This town too crazy for you?” Allison asked.

Noah glanced around the table. He took in his new friends, all sitting around and talking about near-death experiences like they were nothing. His gaze finally settled on Stiles. Sure, the town had its downsides. But so far, the pros seemed to far outweigh the cons.

Noah grinned. “Not crazy enough.” Stiles let out a little cheer, jumping up and fist pumping the air. Scott grinned and clapped him on the back. Noah met Allison’s eyes, and she smiled at him, her dimples deeper than ever. Isaac and Scott high fived each other, and Lydia remained seated, smiling.

“Welcome to the pack” Scott stuck out his hand, and Noah shook it. He didn’t know if he’d ever been happier in his life. Finally, he belonged. What had started out as a curse had become a blessing. He only hoped it could last. Knowing his luck, it wouldn’t.

***

Lydia gave Allison and Noah a ride home, and while she talked along the way, Noah began to realize what Stiles saw in her. There was her physical beauty, which had been evident from the start (though her looks weren’t particularly Noah’s type… they were a little too _feminine_ ) she also burned with an intensity he hadn’t seen in many people before, full of snark and more knowledge than he had ever seen in someone. He could tell that she tried to hide the genius within her underneath the persona she put on, but once away from the school, her brain wasn’t able to conceal itself for long.

He found himself warming up to her rapidly, and he even thought she might be starting to like him too. She certainly found his lame jokes funny. Noah admitted to himself that if he were straight, he would’ve been into her too. Not that Stiles was straight. Or at least Noah hoped Stiles wasn’t completely straight. That would be a serious bummer. Noah pushed the thought away almost immediately. No sense in hoping for something he was almost sure would never happen. Even if Stiles was into guys, he certainly wasn’t anywhere close to admitting it to himself.

Upon their arrival back to the Argent’s, dinner was already prepared, sitting out on the dining room table.

“You’re certainly later than usual, what took so long?” Chris asked while spooning potatoes onto his plate.

“We were filling Noah in” Allison replied through a mouthful of food.

“Oh? So what’d you think, Noah?” the older Argent turned to look at his nephew, who was scarfing down his food like a starving animal.

“Wha- Oh” he paused to swallow. “It’s kind of freaky- I mean, this town’s nuts, but I’m up for it. It’s not like a really have a choice, anyway.” He laughed weakly.

“No, you always have a choice. There’s always a choice.” Chris turned serious, his eyes staring into Noah gravely.

Noah nodded woodenly. “Of course. I mean, I know which choice is for me.” Chris nodded, seemingly satisfied, and took another serving of potatoes.

Later that night, Noah flipped over onto his other side for what felt like the seven hundredth time. He couldn’t fall asleep, and he knew exactly why. Even after just one night, he was becoming dependent on Stiles’s voice to lull him to sleep, his soft breathing on the other end of the phone.

After another fifteen minutes, Noah finally gave up, and with an exasperated sigh, dialed Stiles’ number.

Stiles picked up on the third ring. “Hello?” he sounded more awake then ever.

“Hey, it’s Noah.”

“ _Oh thank god_. I was just about to call you- I can’t sleep without- I mean, thanks for calling.” Noah smiled into the phone. Stiles needed him too.

“What’s up?” Noah asked, and they got to talking. They talked for hours before falling asleep, the buttons of the key pad leaving imprints on Noah’s cheek, the phone pressed between his face and the mattress.

“Lydia, what are you doing here?” Noah started awake to the sound of Stiles’ voice.

 _What? What’s Lydia doing in Stiles’ room at-_ Noah looked at the clock _\- three am?_ His stomach filled with dread. Maybe they were more serious than he’d thought. Maybe they were thing. Maybe they were secretly meeting up for a late night booty call. Should he hang up? What a horrible situation to be in. Noah felt sick to his stomach. Next thing he knew, he was going to be hearing moans coming through the phone’s speakers.

He braced himself to hang up as soon as suspicious noises began, but nothing came. Not a reply from Lydia, not anything else from Stiles.

Then, after what seemed like eternity, a small whimper.

“No, I have to check. No, I’ll be right back.” Stiles sounded scared, and Noah listened to the sound of Stiles rising from his bed and standing up. He realized the other boy was dreaming.

He didn’t know which was worse; Lydia actually being in Stiles’ room, or Stiles’ dreaming she was.

He decided the former, definitely the former.

“I’m just going to close the door.” Stiles whispered. Noah heard him take a step, then another. Finally, he heard the door shut and Stiles return to his bed. The sound of his sheets crinkling against the phone’s speakers as Stiles readjusted on his mattress sounded like music to Noah’s ears.

He let himself relax. It was just a weird dream, that was all. Nothing to worry about. He was just about to fall asleep when he heard Stiles start talking again.

“No, please no. Noooo.” He whimpered, and Noah could hear him moving. “Please don’t. No. NO. NOOOOO!” his pleas turned to full on yelling, and Noah was suddenly wide awake, the phone clutched to his ear.

“Stiles? Stiles, can you hear me? Stiles! Wake up! You’re dreaming!” 

“NO! LEAVE ME ALONE! PLEASE! NOOOO!” Noah could hear him crying, his voice cracking as he yelled.

“STILES!” Noah screamed into the phone. Just then, Allison came running into the room.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, standing in the doorway wearing a tshirt and boxers, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“It’s Stiles. I was on the phone with him, and we fell asleep. I think he’s dreaming, but it’s a nightmare. He won’t wake up, I think there’s something wrong. Allison, we have to do something.” A yell came from the phone, and Allison sent him a look.

“Let’s go.” She turned in the door and Noah followed.

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noah and Allison rush to Stiles' aid during a particularly bad nightmare. Afterwards, strange things begin to happen at school, including a few run-ins with everyone's favourite bully, Flash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's to celebrate the release of The Amazing Spiderman 2!!! Sorry this is such a delayed update! I've been super duper busy but I promise I'll try to update asap. Comments and feedback are as always very much appreciated (:

By the time they pulled into the driveway, Scott, who Allison had called in the car, had already arrived on his motorcycle. He was removing his helmet as Noah jumped out of the still moving car. Allison put the car in park and got out in one smooth motion, following quickly behind Scott. Noah rammed his fist against the front door repeatedly, swearing under his breath when no answer came.  
“Noah I don’t think that’s the best-“

“We need to find another way in” Noah cut Allison off, backing up to gaze up at the roof, contemplating other methods of entry. He looked like he was about to try jumping for the gutter when the door opened.

“What the he-“ Stiles father began, but Noah was already through the door and past him.

“I’m so sorry Sheriff” Allison apologized, glancing apologetically at the confused man as she followed behind Noah. Scott followed shortly after, turning around and walking backwards while rapidly apologizing to Stiles’ father.

“I’m so so sorry, but we have a very good reason for this, I swear.” The sheriff stood in the doorway, seemingly bewildered.

Even before the trio reached their friend’s bedroom, they could hear his muffled whimpering. They reached the door to Stiles’ bedroom and Noah hesitated briefly before rushing inside. He got to Stiles right as he started to yell, but his cries were cut off the second Noah’s arms were around him. He collapsed into Noah, burying his face into the other boy’s shoulder. Noah sunk down, Stiles with him, and they clung to each other.

Noah didn’t catch the glance Allison and Scott shared they stood their ground at the entrance to the room. Finally, Noah pulled away and cupped Stiles’ face in his hands.  
“Stiles? Stiles, are you okay?” he breathed, his throat feeling tight.

“Ya, I think so.” Stiles nodded, biting his lip, obviously holding back tears as he looked into Noah’s eyes.

“Please tell me I’m awake, I don’t know if I am. I can’t tell- oh god, I can’t breathe. Am I awake?”

“You’re awake, I swear.” Noah said, rubbing his thumbs in circles on Stiles’ cheeks, attempting to calm him down. Stiles shook his head a little and Noah leaned in, inches away from his face.

“Trust me”

“I believe you.”

“Good.”

“I’m glad you came for me”

“Of course” and then they were hugging again, Noah’s back against the wall and Stiles piled into his lap.

Scott cleared his throat.

“Uh, Stiles, I’m sorry, but what exactly happened?” He asked. Allison stood beside him with her arms crossed, her mouth turned down with concern.

Stiles seemed to snap back into reality, pushing away from Noah and moving away from him to sit crossed legged on the floor, putting a foot of space between them. Noah felt his heart sink.

“I had another one of my nightmares- those ones I’ve been telling you about. This one was a little worse then usual, I guess.” He chuckled at the end, but it was just about the least convincing chuckle Noah had ever heard. He noticed the other boy’s hands were shaking violently.

Stiles ran a hand through his hair so that it was standing straight up and looked around the room. It seemed like he was piecing things together.

“You guys should go home, it’s nothing. I’m fine.” Stiles nodded hard, attempting to affirm his statement but instead making it less believable.

“We’ll stay. Don’t worry Stiles, we’re here for you.” Scott said, coming to rest his hand on his best friend’s shoulder.

“Ya, it’s not like we’ll be able to go back to sleep anyway.” Allison added.

Stiles smiled, but his eyes looked haunted.

“Okay, that could work I guess.” Stiles agreed. Noah watched his body relax, as Stiles let his head fall back against the wall with a clunk and let out a soft sigh.

“How did you know? That I was dreaming, I mean?” He asked.

“We fell asleep on the phone and you woke me up.” Noah replied.

“Oh geez, that’s horribly embarrassing. I was probably crying like a baby. What did I say? No, don’t tell me. Oh god.” Stiles ducked his head in shame.

“No, no. Nothing bad.” Noah protested, even though it wasn’t entirely true. He heard the echo of Stiles calling out Lydia’s name in his head.

The group ended up sitting in a circle, trading stories about their childhood and intentionally avoiding any mention of the nightmare or anything remotely supernatural. Despite the circumstances, Noah felt warm and fuzzy, like things were blurred around the edges. He felt like he belonged, and Stiles’ thigh pressed up against his felt didn’t feel so bad either.

***

Once dawn broke, everyone went their separate ways to get ready for school- Allison and Noah back to the apartment and Scott to his house. Once Noah was inside his room, he let himself flop face first onto the bed, exhausted from lack of sleep. Not to mention unprecedented amounts of stress.

“NOAH! We’re going to be late” Noah woke to Allison flinging open his door two hours later. Shit. He’d fallen asleep.

“I’m coming, sorry, I’ll be super speedy.” He flew about his room, throwing on a fresh pair of jeans and after getting a look at the horrendous excuse for hair he had going on, pulled a beanie on to hide the previous night’s wild endeavors and subsequent lack of preparation for school. He threw some things into his backpack and sprinted out the door and into the elevator just as the doors were shutting.

“I can’t believe you fell asleep.” Allison shook her head at him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s okay, if we’re late, we’re late. You’re cool with getting a ride with Lydia, right?” had Allison asked him after school yesterday, Noah would’ve been absolutely fine with it. But after the events of the night before, he didn’t know how he felt anymore. Noah shook himself. It wasn’t Lydia’s fault Stiles was infatuated with her, and he shouldn’t develop a personal vendetta against such a genuinely interesting person because of it.

“No ya, absolutely.” Noah replied.

They stepped out of the elevator and walked out of the lobby into the crisp morning air. Noah inhaled deeply and quickly rummaged through his bag for his camera, snapping a picture of the empty street in the early sunlight.

Lydia beeped her horn impatiently at them.

“Let’s go! I do _not_ want to be late.”

“We’re coming! Come on Noah” Allison called, grabbing Noah’s arm and pulling him in the direction of Lydia’s car. Noah resisted, feebly attempting to get the right angle before giving up and letting her lead him towards a frighteningly impatient Lydia. Noah felt himself begin to regret the decision to ride with the redhead. She looked like she might tear either of their heads off at any second.

“Get in the frigging car.” She hissed, arms crossed.

“Yikes, alright.” Noah hopped in the back, and Allison slid coolly into the front seat.

Lydia floored it before Noah had fully sat down, and he felt himself fall back in his seat as the car lurched forward.

They got to school only five minutes behind schedule. Allison and Lydia rushed inside while Noah straggled behind, snapping pictures as he pleased. Class didn’t seem incredibly appealing at the moment.

Once he finally stumbled into his English class thirty minutes later. The teacher raised her head when he entered, gave him a withering look, then returned her attention back to the small paperback in her hands. The class appeared to be reading, but Noah didn’t know which book, nor did he have a copy. He settled in his seat and contented himself with flicking through the pictures he’d taken earlier on his camera.

Once both English and Chem were over with, Noah made his way from the third floor to the first, where the cafeteria was located. He decided to make a stop at his locker on the way down, and after closing it begrudgingly found none other than Flash lurking beside him, two of his even larger buddies behind him.

“What do you want, Flash?” Noah asked witheringly, turning to face the larger boy.

“Your lunch money.” Flash guffawed, his friends chuckling along with him. When he saw Noah begin to rummage in his bag, obviously looking for his wallet, he turned deadly serious. “I’m kidding, I couldn’t care less about that shit. I want you to get your scrawny ass out of these hallways, you freak.”

Noah put a hand to his chest, feigning astonishment.

“My goodness Flash, how sweet of you!” Flash glowered at him, inching closer.

“Listen here, _bud._ I know you’re new and all, but you’re not welcome. Beacon Hills hardly ever gets new students, and when we do, we don’t take kindly to them. Only if they’re hot. That’s why we were cool with Allison transferring here. But you, shrimp boy? You just won’t do.” He pushed against Noah’s chest, bumping him into the lockers, and Noah felt his temper flare.

“Just leave me alone, will you?” Noah asked, checking himself and staring at his sneakers instead of the other boy’s cruel expression, which he was sure would only elicit more anger, something he did not want. He caught sight of Isaac and Allison making their way towards him and focused on steadying his breathing.

“I’ll do whatever I want.” Flash shoved against his chest again, then turned away and walked down the hall, his friends following. Noah rubbed the spot on his chest Flash had pushed and straightened his glasses, gathering himself as Isaac and Allison got to him.

“Don’t let him get to you. He’s done the same thing to just about everyone at this school.” Isaac said, looking apologetically at Noah.

Noah shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

Allison looked like she wanted to say something, but didn’t. Noah followed them to the first floor where they met up with Scott and Stiles.  
When Stiles saw him, his face lit up.

“I like the beanie.” He said, and Noah swore he was blushing.

“Really?” Noah asked, fiddling with the hat. “I just threw it on to cover my brutal hair.”

“Ya, no, I mean, it’s a good look.” Stiles cleared his throat and looked down. Noah felt himself begin to blush as well.

“Shall we go?” Stiles asked, turning the subject away from Noah’s clothing choices. Noah noticed the dark circles under his eyes, a sign of the previous night.

“Where’s Lydia?” Noah asked.

Stiles’ face immediately darkened. “With Flash.” He grumbled.

“Oh. Does she eat lunch with him often?”

Isaac looked at Stiles, then back at Noah. “She alternates.” He looked like he felt sorry for Stiles. Noah suddenly didn’t feel so hungry anymore.

Lunch went by smoothly, the lack of Lydia not such a big deal. The group ate and chatted happily, the time passing remarkably quickly. Afterwards, Noah sat through another excruciating physics lesson and pretended to work on the assigned problems for what felt like eternity. Finally, he was able to go to his favorite class; history. Stiles, Scott, and Isaac spent the class flicking eraser bits at each other’s heads, much to Lydia and Allison’s dismay. Noah, however, found it incredibly entertaining, especially the way Stiles would cry out when he was hit like he was fatally wounded, then turn to Noah and wink.

They walked out of the class as a group, then agreed to all go their separate ways to their lockers to gather their stuff and then reunite at the picnic tables.

Noah got to his locker, and began stuffing his binders into his bag as quickly as he could.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and immediately his body responded, Noah’s fingertips tingling along with his mouth as his canines began to elongate. He whipped around, grabbing the exact person he knew would be standing there and rammed Flash’s body into the wall of lockers.

“Woah! What the fuck man?” Flash looked absolutely astonished, pinned to the lockers. Noah could feel Isaac stop in his tracks a few feet down the hall, watching.

“Noah! What the hell? Let him down!” Lydia was there, looking not so much angry as mildly irritated the Noah had her boyfriend pinned to the lockers by his throat.

“Don’t touch me ever again.” Noah snarled, letting go of Flash and watching him fall to the floor.

“Noah!” Stiles was there, all of the sudden. He pulled his arm and led him down the hall. Noah tried to steady his breathing as Stiles asked him what happened. Noah glanced back, watching Lydia crouch down to help Flash, who was rubbing at his neck and looking bewildered. Noah could sense Stiles knew what was happening behind them, but kept going.

“Lydia, catch up with us later. If you still want to.” He called back, not even glancing in her direction.

“Noah, you seriously need to control your temper. No one can know- about you- about what happens here.”

“I know that, Stiles. Thank you.” Noah snapped, and Stiles looked hurt. He immediately regretted the words, and softened.

“The guy’s such a douchebag, though. I couldn’t help it.”

Stiles nodded. “He certainly is.”

Just then, Isaac caught up to them.

“Guys, please tell me someone else noticed Flash’s eyes.” He asked, an odd tone to his voice.

“What do you mean ‘Flash’s eyes’?” Stiles asked.

“When you pined him to the lockers- I swear to god, his eyes flashed gold.”

“No way.” Stiles breathed.

“No way.” Noah echoed.

Isaac nodded. “Yes way. Maybe I was seeing things, but I could’ve sworn.”

“We need to follow him.” Was Stiles’ response.

Noah turned around, but the hallway was empty. “He could be anywhere.”

“He can’t have gone far.” Isaac said.

“Let’s go then” Stiles turned and jogged down the hall in the opposite direction they had been taking.

Isaac had been right. Once they got to the staircase, the trio caught site of Flash and Lydia exiting through the first floor door. They followed behind at a safe distance, careful not to be seen once they were out in the open hallway. They watched as Lydia said something to him and turned to go out the front doors, while Flash kept walking down the hall.

“What the-?” Stiles whispered.

“Shh.” Isaac and Noah shushed him at the same time, and they all crept forwards.

They followed Flash as her turned down the art hallway, past walls lined with paintings until they watched him enter an empty music room.

“That’s where the band practices.” Isaac whispered as they crouched outside, contemplating what to do.

“Maybe he’s a closet band member and just doesn’t want anyone to know.” Stiles offered.

“The band doesn’t practice on Wednesdays.” Isaac replied.

“Well, disregard that theory then.”

“Extra credit?” Noah asked.

“I seriously doubt Flash is trying to get an extra credit in music. He looks like he has about as much rhythm as a spoon.” Stiles whispered.

“You’re the one who said he was secretly in band!” Isaac scoffed.

“I was kidding!” Stiles cried. “Mostly.” He added, mouth quirking.

“Whatever reason he has for being in there, we can find out if we follow him.” Noah redirected the conversation back to the point at hand.

“Okay, then let’s go in.” Isaac said.

“You first, I’m not entering a dark empty room with that guy. He could swallow me whole.” Stiles nodded towards the door.

“Okay, whatever. Follow behind me” Noah and Stiles nodded, following Isaac into the band room.

Once inside, the room appeared empty. It was dark and quiet, and they all nodded to one another in a silent agreement to keep the lights off and to stay as quiet as possible until they were sure Flash wasn’t in the room with them.

“Let’s split up.” Stiles whispered.

They nodded and broke apart, searching the rather large room for the rather large boy.

It didn’t take long for them to conclude that Flash was nowhere to be found.

“He isn’t here.” Stiles sighed, his voice closer to a normal volume now that they knew they were alone.

“Where could he have gone? There’s only one exit.” Isaac asked, puzzled.

“Why was he in here in the first place?” Noah responded to Isaac’s question with another question.

“This is some of the weirdest shit I’ve experienced, and I’ve experienced some weird shit.” Stiles said, sitting down.

A shrill noise rang out through the room, ringing through Noah’s ears. He felt himself leap back, and then everything was upside down. Stiles had sat on the piano. All of the sudden he felt like he was hanging and Isaac and Stiles were staring at him, clearly in shock.

Noah tried to move, but found he was rooted in place, on all fours. His hands and feet clung to floor. And then he realized he wasn’t on the floor. He was perched on the ceiling. Isaac and Stiles were standing on the floor and he was somehow hanging upside down.

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!” Stiles cried.

“I- I don’t know” Noah started to freak out, and then immediately fell to the floor. He landed in a heap, still unsure of what had happened.

Stiles flailed over to him and began running his hands over his body, looking for injuries. Noah struggled for breath, the wind having been knocked out of him.

“Are you okay? That was some straight up Spiderman shit! You stuck to the ceiling! OH MY GOD!” Stiles was frantic with excitement.

“I’m fine- I think. What the hell?” Noah muttered, looking himself over.

Isaac was standing, staring at him dumbfounded.

Stiles mouth was opening and closing like a fish. It seemed like he didn’t know what to do with himself, until his face broke into a huge grin.

“Dude, Scott was never able to do _that_ ”

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Noah try to figure out Noah's newfound abilities and end up even further away from any kind of answers than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've taken so long to update! I've been super busy and with the Teen Wolf hiatus I haven't been half as motivated to keep writing. Hopefully with the new season I'll be all about updating again, however! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter even though it's kind of rushed. My apologies.

“Hurry up _please_ ” Stiles turned, his hands pressed palm-to-palm as he begged Noah to pick up the pace.

“We need to figure out why you’re so freaky asap!” He rushed into his room as soon as they reached the top of the stairs.

“Why I’m so freaky?” Noah asked.

Stiles stuck his head back out. “Don’t get offended. I like freaky things.” He smiled, winked, and then ducked back inside.

Noah let out a little huff and followed into the other boy’s room. It hadn’t even been a week since Noah had last been there, but things already seemed different… more sacred.

“Grab a chair, we need to get started.” Stiles was frantically typing his password into his laptop.

“Do you do this often?” Noah asked, noting the countless newspaper clippings, photos, and various scraps of paper pinned up against the walls, all connected with red thread.

“What do you mean? Oh, like researching stuff? Ya, pretty much all the time. I don’t know, I like it, I guess. I like figuring stuff out.” Stiles nodded to himself as he spoke.

“I assume you’re good at it. You seem like you’d be really good at figuring stuff out.” Noah noticed Stiles’ neck flush at the compliment, despite keeping his back turned, and smiled to himself.

“If it weren’t for me nothing would ever get done around here.” Stiles replied a second later.  
“I can imagine.” Noah agreed, pulling the extra desk chair over beside Stiles and sitting down.

“So, how do we get started? Google ‘Weird jumping powers likely linked to wolf bite”?” Noah asked, sarcasm lacing his voice.

“More or less, ya.” Stiles laughed.

“Oh.” Noah replied, unsure whether he should be worried if Stiles was offended or not.

“Extra… powers… that… come… with werewolf… bites” Stiles spoke every word aloud as he typed. “There.” He hit enter, then started to scroll through the results.

“Increased sense of smell, quickened healing, longer stamina” he turned to look at Noah and waggled his eyebrows. Noah felt himself flush hot pink, even though he knew Stiles didn’t mean anything by it. At least not anything along _those_ lines.

“Increased physical attractiveness- Bullshit! Scott is ugly as ever.” Stiles scoffed.

Noah chuckled. “Keep reading, you idiot.”

“There’s nothing here about sticking to ceilings! Nothing even remotely close to it.” Stiles moaned, after searching through countless results from countless different searches; all along the same lines of ‘freakier powers as a result of something already freaky’.

“Try searching ‘Reasons why someone might stick to a ceiling’” Noah helpfully chimed in after an hour or so.

“That’s just going to show up with something like-“ A picture of Spiderman popped up in all his spandex glory. “Yup, Spiderman.” Stiles sighed and slammed the lid of the laptop down.

Noah let himself fall back in his chair. This is hopeless. “I’m just weird. What else is new?” Stiles watched him, tapping his finger to his lip, as Noah wiped his glasses.

“Dude, I have no fucking clue. I’ll get back to you though. I’ll figure it out.”

“Whatever floats your boat.” Noah shrugged and rested his head against the chair’s back.

“Do you want to get pizza or something? It’s close to seven! That means I haven’t eaten in like, three hours. I can’t go three hours without eating, I’ll starve.”

Noah laughed as he followed Stiles out the door. “You’re lucky you have a fast metabolism.” He told him as they headed to Stiles’ jeep.

***

Noah ended up ‘accidentally’ falling asleep on Stiles’ floor (with Stiles a few feet away) and stayed the night. He blamed it on the pizza, for making him drowsy and content, when he called Allison the next morning, but he had a hunch it had a lot more to do with hormones than with cheesy goodness.

“School. Why does it exist again?” Stiles asked when they were on their way to school.

“To torture us.” Noah said.  
“See, at normal schools, kids would laugh along, ha ha ha, but in Beacon Hills we actually _do_ get tortured. Or sacrificed to ancient druids.” Stiles tapped the steering wheel with his thumbs along to the music like he was talking about the weather, or perhaps a movie he’d seen recently. Not mythological murder.

“Sorry?” Stiles had asked him something but Noah had been to intent on Stiles’ lovely hands to be paying much attention.

“We’re here. Are you going to get out?” Stiles looked at him expectantly, blinking a few times more than necessary to drive the point home.

“Oh crap, ya. Let’s go.” Noah hopped out of the car and they headed in the direction of their lockers.

Noah had borrowed a black drawstring hoodie from Stiles, and couldn’t believe how comfortable he felt. It smelled like heaven, all musky and sharp; just like Stiles.

The day passed relatively uneventfully. Flash failed to show up to school, something Stiles found incredibly interesting. At lunch, Lydia told the group that Flash had the flu when they asked about his absence. She seemed to be telling the truth, but as they left the cafeteria, Stiles whispered to Noah “Why would he tell her the truth in the first place? As far as she knows, he does have the flu. And it wouldn’t even matter if she did know the real reason, because she’s like, the greatest liar ever.” He watched Lydia, who was walking in front of them, her skirt swaying with each step she took and talking to Allison, with a blatant fondness. Noah felt his heart clench.

In Physics, Noah was rudely awakened by a buzz from his phone. He flipped it open to find ‘One New Message from Stiles’. Pressing ‘read’ he found a simple message; ‘Meet me at the 2nd floor bathroom in five. Something we have to discuss.’ Noah shut the phone and raised his hand.

“Yes, Mr.- Argent? Is that right?” the teacher asked. Noah swore his voice got more boring with each word that passed through his lips.

“Uh ya, Argent. May I go to the bathroom?”

“Hurry back.” The teacher dismissed him with a wave of his hand. _Doubt it._ Noah thought as he receded down the hall.

“So?” was the first word out of his mouth once he reached the second floor to find Stiles already waiting there.  
“So- I might have gone through Flash’s locker- you know, to look for my deodorant, or something- and it was completely empty. There was nothing in there. Do you think he ditched town or something?”

Noah shook his head. “No way. It’s not like we even saw him do anything- we just followed him into a room. There’s no reason for him to flee.”

“Why would he take all his stuff with him?” Stiles asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s all protein powder in there or something anyway.”

“I guess… Still, I don’t like this.” Stiles leaped out of the way when he almost got smacked by the opening bathroom door. A freshman stared at him appalledly before scuttling off.

“People need to watch where they’re going” Stiles grumbled.

“Technically, he couldn’t have seen you.” Noah supplied. And Stiles shot him a look that said ‘You’re helping about as much as not at all’

“Do you wanna go somewhere? I’m bored and this school is killing me.” Stiles kneaded his forehead with the palm of his hand as he spoke.

“Uh- I have physics right now…” Noah replied, rather confused.

“So? Leave. It’s not like Higgins will care. He won’t even notice.” Stiles was already making his way down the hallway.

“Are you sure?” Noah asked, hurrying to catch up.

“Yes I’m sure. Lets go get a burger, I’m starving.” Stiles sped up his pace. Noah was starving too, he realized. The last time he’d eaten had been the pizza they’d gotten the night before.

They ended up in a far booth at the Wendy’s that was just around the corner from the high school, mowing down fries at the rate of starving animals.

“This is good. I could go for like 10 more though.” Stiles said through a mouthful of food.

“Honestly, I could too.” Noah said, popping another fry into his mouth.

Stiles hopped up. “Another round it is!” he cried, before dashing to the counter and ordering another set of cheeseburgers.

Once they were finished, the pair leaned back in their seats, feeling bloated and sleepy.

“Nap time?” Stiles asked.

“I don’t think napping in Wendy’s is a very great idea.” Noah replied.

“You’re right, let’s go nap in my car.” Stiles nodded, his head lulling. He raised himself up.

Noah led the way outside, and the two boys threw themselves into the Jeep’s seats, falling asleep almost instantly.

Noah awoke to a loud noise, but wasn’t able to place it for his confusion was overwhelming. He didn’t know where he was nor how it had gotten dark outside. After a few seconds of sitting in the passenger seat and blinking, Noah came to the realization that he and Stiles were in Stiles’ jeep, and they must have had been sleeping for hours.

“Shit. Stiles, wake up. We’ve been sleeping for eternity. Wake up!” he shook Stiles shoulder, and the other boy began to stir.

“Wha-“ Just then another loud noise resonated through the car, like someone was on the roof and trying to rip through it and into the interior.

That woke Stiles up. “What the fuck?!” he cried. Noah startled at the noise, sending something shooting out of his hand. Garbage? He didn’t remember holding anything. He looked up to find a glob of white thread stuck to the windshield, and stared, bewildered, trying to make sense of it.

“DUDE DID YOU JUST MAKE THAT SHOOT OUT OF YOUR HAND? YOU ARE SPIDERMAN! THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN DO THAT IS SPIDERMAN! DUDE! WHAT THE FUCK!” Stiles seemed to be having some kind of conniption while Noah was still trying to wrap his mind around what had happened. He was gaping at his open palm when the noise came again, even louder.

Noah sprang into action, leaping out of the car and onto the slick pavement. Apparently, it had been raining while they slept.

And-

Nothing. The parking lot was empty but for the flicker of the neon sign advertising ’99 cent burgers! Come and get them while they last’

Stiles stuck his head out the driver’s side window.

“What is it? Do I need my bat?”

Noah shook his head, staring around incredulously. There was nothing there, not even a faint scent. How bizarre.

“All clear. I have no clue what the sound was from, and this place is giving me the creeps. Can we please just go?” Noah said, and Stiles nodded, ducking back inside the car. Noah hurried to get back inside as quickly as he could, and they set off on their way.

Stiles drove Noah back to the Argent’s apartment building in relative silence, no one speaking about the odd noise or the even odder webs that had shot out of Noah’s hands. When they pulled up in front, Stiles stopped the car.

“Look Noah, whatever’s different about you- I mean, whatever made the bite give you different… abilities, we’ll figure it out. You don’t have to worry.” Stiles was staring at him so earnestly and Noah could feel it boring into him like a spotlight, but refused to look up and meet his eyes.

“I really don’t want to talk about it right now. I’ll see you at school.” He got out of the car and headed inside, his hands stuffed in his pockets and head hung low.

It was true. Noah didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t remotely want to talk about it at all. It was bad enough that he was weird in the beginning. Then he had been bitten, which had made him weirder. But now? Now he was some sort of mutant freak werewolf that lacked any kind of feasible explanation.

Noah thought he might be having a mild existential crisis as he made his way into his Uncle’s apartment.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't posted in SOOOOO long! My life is beyond hectic right now. Here's a new chapter that I hope you enjoy. I hope to update again soon, but I make no promises. However, this story isn't dead. If you want to keep reading, spread the word and let more people know about it because more readers and more feedback will definitely motivate me! As for my current (or at least, hopefully still current...) readers, THANK YOU, YOU GUYS ALL ROCK. 
> 
> In this chapter, Noah lays down some ground rules with the Argents, and begins research with Stiles, working to figure out what Noah is. Enjoy!

Once Noah had stripped down and reluctantly showered (reluctantly since showering meant getting rid of the smell of Stiles) he had flopped onto his bed, thoroughly exhausted, despite his exceedingly long nap earlier in the day. He was just dozing off when someone cleared their throat. Noah whipped around.  
“Hi Noah, where have you been?” it was his uncle, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. He didn’t look particularly thrilled, but then again, he never did.

“Oh! Uh, hi Uncle Chris… I went to Stiles’ to work on a chem assignment and then we got pizza and it was late so I just stayed there and then we went and did homework with a few other people after school today and then-“

Chris cut him off. “Look, Noah. Going out is fine. I’m not your father, I don’t want to make you follow all kinds of rules. You can do what you want. But you have to realize that you have some limitations; you’re a werewolf. There are so many more dangers now than there were when you were a human. You need to be careful. Really careful.”

Noah nodded. He was beginning to realize that. Beacon Hills was already producing countless bizarre things and he’d only been there a few days.

“As well, try to go to class? Skipping isn’t the greatest idea… Even if you’re _studying_ a lot.” Noah’s uncle put an odd emphasis on the word ‘studying’ but Noah only questioned it for a second. It’s not like he could possibly know anything about Stiles and Noah’s relationship. Not that there was a relationship. Unfortunately, for the time being it was just friendship between the two boys. Noah winced as well because today's skipping hadn't gone unnoticed by the older Argent.

“Dad! Stop berating Noah! He just got here and you’re already lecturing him.” There was Allison, arriving just in time to save the day. Noah grinned at her.

“It’s fine Ally, he was actually making some really good points.” Noah said. “Which I totally agree with, by the way. “ he added.

“I’m glad we’re on the same page.” Chris smiled one of his rare smiles, then pausing to ruffle his daughters hair, headed out of Noah’s room and down the hallway towards his office.

Allison lingered at the door. “Mind if I come in?” she asked.

“Not at all.” Noah replied, scooting over so there was room for her to sit on his bed.

“How are things? This must be a lot to adjust to.” Allison asked, smoothing out her skirt.

“Honestly? Things are good. I really like it here. I really like your whole group you have going on- all of you guys are really great.” Allison smiled. “It’s stressful though, this werewolf stuff… I have no clue what I’m doing.” Noah confided.

He paused, then continued. “And Ally? This might sound weird… But I wanted to tell you. I was thinking maybe you could mention it to Scott. Just in passing, you know? It’s not a big deal or anything, but I think I’m developing some other…. Special powers? I don’t really know yet, Stiles is helping me to figure it out though. But ya, just though you should, you know, know. I guess.” Noah made sure to downplay his 'special powers' a fair amount. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to get a little too freaked out by him.

“What kind of special powers?” Allison asked.

“Like I said- as of right now- I don’t really know. As soon as I figure something out, you’ll be the first to know, though. So don’t worry.” Noah reassured her, even though it wasn't entirely true.

“What about Stiles? You two seem really close.” Allison asked.

Noah swallowed, but tried to remain calm. “Yeah, he’s really cool… We’re becoming pretty good friends.” Allison nodded.

“That makes me really happy.” She said, then stood up.

“Alright, it’s getting late. I’m going to bed… Sleep well! I’ll see you tomorrow.” Noah wished her goodnight, then laid down again.

He had been staring at the ceiling for what felt like an eternity, unable to sleep anymore, when his phone lit up. Once again, it was Stiles.

‘I don’t want to sleep… are you awake?’ the message read.

‘I’m up.’ Noah typed. ‘Why don’t you want to sleep?’

He waited as the typing symbol appeared.

Stiles’ reply came a minute later. ‘Nightmares. They’re pretty bad right now.’

Noah frowned at his phone. ‘That’s shitty. I can’t sleep tho, so I’ll stay up with you :)’

Stiles replied right away. ‘Good, I was hoping you would say that.’

***

Noah ended up falling asleep at close to 4 am, but the next morning was surprisingly less painful than he had expected. He felt energized and ready to take on the day.

Once he’d gotten to school, Noah spent a few minutes before class talking to Lydia, Isaac, and Scott in front of some lockers. The more he talked to his new friends, the more he liked them.

However, for the second day in a row, Flash hadn’t shown up to school. Noah wondered if he should feel worried, or relieved. He was too shy to ask Lydia about him when Stiles already had, so he opted not to.

The school day passed uneventfully, nothing particularly interesting happening outside of a rather brutal fight between two best friends in the third floor science hallway, something about a boy and a similar boy a few years prior. Noah had had a hard time keeping up.

At the end of the day, just as history was finishing up, the gang made plans to hang out after school. The plan was that Stiles would pick up half of the group around 7 or so, Scott the other half, and they would go somewhere. The exact location they had yet to determine.

Noah was thrilled to be included in the plans, his entire body buzzing with anticipation. He didn’t want to get too far ahead of himself, but he was beginning to believe he might start to belong in Beacon Hills.

As Stiles and Noah exited the school after their final class was over, Stiles offered to drive Noah home.  
“I can give you a ride to Allison’s, if you want. Or you can come over and we can do a bit more research. You know, whichever.” Stiles shrugged.

Noah smiled. “I’d like the research, if that’s good with you?” Stiles nodded fervently.

“Let’s do it!’ he cried as he hopped into the driver’s seat. Noah smiled to himself as he followed suit, sliding into the passenger’s seat.

The drive to Stiles’ house was filled with off-key screeching that Stiles considered singing. He sang along to every song that came on the radio, including the melody, the harmonies, and the backup vocals all into one.

“You are supremely talented.” Noah had remarked, and Stiles had laughed.

“You are supremely honest. Not!”

When they reached the house that Stiles shared with his father, they both got out and headed immediately up to Stiles’ room. Truth be told, there was no time to waste. They both desperately wanted to figure out what Noah was dealing with.

They started off with the internet, googling, searching through medical journals and obscure articles on lycanthropy. After that turned up nothing, the pair took to the couple of books Stiles’ had purchased solely for the purpose of wolf research. They sat on the floor of Stiles’ bedroom, knees just touching, pouring through pages and pages of difficult-to-read old English and roughly translated passages of latin.

Sometimes, Noah would get lost in the constellations of moles splattered across Stiles’ face and neck, enthralling himself in the way the boy licked his thumb to turn a page. Whenever Noah realized what he was doing, he’d try his best to snap himself out of it and get back to work. Sometimes though, it was easier said than done.

“Aha” Stiles cried all of the sudden, three hours into their research session.

“What?!” Noah replied, incredibly eager to find out what Stiles had discovered.

“The Bestiary your family keeps! If we’re going to ever figure out what your deal is, your deal will be in there.” Stiles stated.

“Okay, sounds promising. How do I get the Bestiary?” Noah asked.

“We’ll get Allison to ask your uncle. And the sooner, the better.” Stiles was already on his feet and on his way out the door.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know. I haven't updated in a billion years. I'm so sorry. But I finally wrote a bunch more so (don't quote me on this) you may be getting multiple updates within the next little bit! In this chapter Stiles and Noah finally figure out whatever the hell Noah is! Also, lot's of Niles tension (: Hope you enjoy! Please give any and all feedback, I love that stuff.

They pulled up to the Argent’s apartment building to find Allison waiting at the entrance, ready to go. She grinned a massive grin when she saw them, sliding easily into the back of the jeep.

“Where are we headed?” she asked as Stiles started driving.

“Actually, we need to ask you something first.” Stiles said, glancing at Noah as if to say ‘You take it from here’.

Noah groaned internally, but plowed ahead anyway. “We- our family, I mean- have a bestiary right? You and your dad have a copy, don’t you?”

Allison’s forehead formed a little crease between her eyebrows before she replied.

“Why?” she asked, her tone cautious.

Noah lowered his voice. “The special powers thing that I mentioned earlier…?”

Allison’s mouth made a little ‘o’ then she nodded. “Oh, yes. My dad made sure to make a copy after the whole thing with Gerard and the Kanima… It’s at the apartment, though. We’d have to go back and get it.”

“That’s fine.” Stiles and Noah said at the same time, before smiling sheepishly at one another. Neither noticed Allison’s small smile at the interaction.

“Okay, then turn around. My dad won’t be home for a couple of hours anyway.” Allison replied, and Stiles pulled a U-turn so sharp that Noah swore he got whiplash.

They pulled into the building’s parking lot and Allison hopped out. Noah offered to go in with her whilst rubbing his still-tender neck. She declined, telling him that it would be quicker if she went by herself. Noah didn’t have any objections, since he would have rather stayed in the car, alone, with Stiles.

“Stop rubbing your neck, you’re fine. My driving skills are impeccable, anyway.” Stiles quipped at Noah once Allison was through the doors.

“You don’t know what kind of pain I’m in!” Noah cried, but Stiles was right. His neck didn’t hurt very much at all. The healing probably helped.

Stiles drummed his fingers on the steering wheel rapidly, then stopped to switch the radio station. He commenced the drumming, then changed the station again.

“Are you okay?” Noah asked. “You seem anxious or something.”

Stiles nodded. “I just want to figure this out. There’s already enough going on. Also, I feel kind of weird. Like my brain’s cloudy, or something?” He stopped at Noah’s concerned expression.

“Nevermind. It’s nothing.” He looked down at his lap.

“Don’t say it’s nothing. Just because I’m worried about you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell me things… Maybe I can help.” Noah said, resting his hand on Stiles forearm. He swore he could hear the other boy’s heartbeat quicken. Or maybe it was just the bass of the music coming from the radio.

“Thank you, that means a lo-“ Stiles broke off and Noah realized how close the two of them had gotten. He figured that Stiles had noticed too, and that was the reason why he had cut off mid sentence. Noah watched Stiles swallow, his Adam’s apple moving up and down as he did so. They seemed to get closer, Noah’s hand still resting on Stiles’ arm.

The sound of Allison opening the car door broke the two boys out of the spell, and they sprang away from one another as if they had been scalded by hot water.

“I found it!” Allison announced, tossing a USB at Noah. Noah caught it, his werewolf senses- or whatever they were- kicking in for once.

“Thanks so much Allison, this is super helpful. I mean it.” Noah smiled at her, and purposely avoided Stiles’ eyes. Stiles did the same.

“Now that you have what you need, can we get the others?!” Allison asked, and Stiles revved the engine in response.

“Let’s go!” he called out as he reversed at a terrible speed out of the parking lot.

***

The group ended up in a cluster on Scott’s living room floor, playing a game of Monopoly. After about 40 minutes, Isaac ending up flipping the board when Stiles bought Boardwalk, causing Noah and Stiles to double over from laughter at the other boy’s reaction.

“Wanna come with me to get a drink?” Stiles asked Noah once their fit of laughter had ceased.

“Sure.” Noah replied, getting up and following him into the kitchen.

Stiles opened the fridge and poured himself and Noah each a glass of suspiciously fluorescent looking orange coloured juice. Noah peered at the cup, wondering how on earth the liquid could have come from a fruit. He suspected that it probably hadn’t, despite the convincing label.

“So I think that I’ll probably get started on the Bestiary tonight, and if I find anything I’ll shoot you a text right away. If not, come over tomorrow after school and we’ll keep working on it. We’ll get to the bottom of this eventually.” Stiles paused. “And by eventually I mean hopefully within the next 50 years.”

Noah chuckled in response, handing Stiles the USB and taking a swig of the unnatural juice.

The two boys leaned against the counter in comfortable silence, sipping their drinks. Their hands wandered unnervingly close, and Noah wondered whether or not he was imagining the increase in Stiles’ heart rate.

Eventually, they went back into the living room to finish Stiles’ domination of Isaac and the others in his quest to take over the rest of the property on the board.

Noah ended up getting a great picture of Stiles laughing, holding the Iron game piece above his head like a trophy. He reminded himself to look at the photo again later.

Stiles left to drive Allison, Lydia, and Noah home around 11 pm. He dropped Lydia off first, then allowed Allison to get out of the car before turning to Noah.

“Call me” he almost-whispered.

“Beep me if you wanna reach me” Noah replied in the tune of the Kim Possible theme song, grinning widly at his joke. Stiles looked as if he wanted to spoon his own eyeballs out with a plastic fork, before he recovered and sent Noah a withering look.

“Go to bed you idiot. You look like death.”

Noah beamed in mock flattery. “How sweet of you.” He replied before getting out of the car and closing the door, shooting Stiles a massive smile before the Jeep was pulling out of the parking lot and out onto the street.

Noah followed Allison inside and immediately found his way to his room, where he flopped onto his bed without bothering to remove his shoes.

He was just drifting off when he heard someone enter his room. Suddenly on high alert, Noah felt a spurt from his hands and quickly wrapped his fingers around the sticky fibers that had sprouted, squishing them into his palms and out of sight as Allison walked in.

“Hey, can we talk?” she asked, sitting on the edge of his bed. She fiddled with a loose thread on her sweater, her dark hair covering part of her face.

“Sure, shoot.” Noah replied, hiding his hands behind his back.

“So, listen. I just need a bit of advice… I know you don’t know him that well, so you might not be the best person to ask… But you’re also not as biased as the rest of them are, so I thought you might be a good person to go to.” She paused, fiddling again.

“Okay, and?” Noah prodded her on.

Allison took a deep breath and continued. “So Scott and I dated. Like, seriously. I really loved him, and I think… I think a part of me always will, you know? But we both need to move on, and he knows that, and I know that. And I’ve started to. With Isaac. I think I really like him, but he’s worried about Scott and I’m worried about Scott and we don’t want to hurt him. I just don’t know if I should end things before anything real, you know- happens.” She breathed out when she was finished.

Noah nodded slowly. None of this was news to him- Stiles had filled him in on the great tragic love of Scott and Allison and their subsequent breakup. He knew that Allison and Isaac had something now, too. Anyone with eyes did.

“I think you should talk to Scott about it. And get Isaac to talk to him about it. Actually, maybe not. Maybe just you. But talk to him in a general sense- ask him if its okay if you move on to other people. I’m sure he’ll say yes, even if it isn’t. Then, realistically, you can’t feel bad when it turns out to be his friend.” Noah chuckled and Allison swatted at his arm, flashing her dimples as she smiled despite herself.

“But seriously, Scott wants you to be happy. And if this makes you happy, you better go for it.”

“Thanks. That was actually really good advice.” Allison paused, seeming to consider something, then asked “So what’s going on with you and Stiles?”

Noah sputtered, his mouth falling open. “What?”

“Oh please! Everyone can tell that you two have something going on. Don’t be stupid. I know you’re gay. And, between you and me, there’s been a rumour going around that Stiles might be bi. Don’t you think he gives off the vibe?”

Noah thought that he very well might have died and gone to heaven. He closed his mouth as he tried to think of a response, then steeled himself to look at Allison.

“Thank you.” Was all he could think to say, and Allison smiled at him.

“I hope things work out with you two. I don’t know if it matters, but I think you would make a really cute couple.”

Noah grinned stupidly, unsure of how to respond.

“Good night Noah, I’m happy you’re here.” And with that Allison got up, waved a little wave at Noah, and left his room, softly shutting the door behind her.

***

School was painful since the end of the day couldn’t possibly come quickly enough. Stiles and Noah had missed their nightly phone call, presumably since Stiles had been busy researching, and Noah had hardly slept. He spent most of his day in a haze between consciousness and unconsciousness, and when the final bell rang Stiles dragged him out of Mr. Yukimura’s classroom and down the hall, straight into his jeep to go get a coffee. He’d obviously noticed how often Noah’s eyes had closed during class.

After coffee and a friendly (albeit heated) debate about whether or not the new Star Wars movies would be good or not, the pair headed to Stiles’ house.

Noah was anxious as he watched Stiles, assuming the other boy had found something. Why else would he be so incredibly jittery? The poor guy could hardly sit still long enough to start the car.

Once inside the house, Stiles grabbed Noah’s hand and dashed upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. Noah focused on trying not to faint, since Stiles’ hands were heavenly.

As soon as they entered Stiles’ bedroom, Stiles slammed the door shut and sat at his desk. His knee thumped up and down as he took a deep breath.

“So.”

“So.” Noah echoed.

Stiles looked around, then leaned forward, a small smile on his face. He was obviously pleased with his sleuthing abilities.

"Have you ever heard of an Arachnilupis?”

“Not that I can recall, no.” Noah replied.

“It took me all night, going through that terrible bestiary your family keeps, but I think I found what we’re looking for” Stiles said.

“They’re like, wolf-spider-human super hybrids. And you’re one of them!” he was talking so fast it took Noah a second to realize what Stiles was getting at.

“Apparently they shoot webs- like you- apparently they stick to ceilings and walls- like you- and apparently they have super high tuned skittish-ness, I guess? Like they think everything is going to kill them… Like you. Also a bunch of other stuff but it would probably be better if you just read it and-“

“Stiles, I could kiss you right now. I can’t believe you figured it out!” Noah cut him off. They both went quiet, realizing what he had said.

The two boys sat in stunned silence for what felt like an eternity. Noah knew, deep down, that wasn’t what friends- bros- buddies- whatever you called them- did if one of them said something along the same lines. They’d fist bump or something. But Noah and Stiles sat and stared at anything but the other person for what had to have been minutes.

Finally, Noah spoke. “I should probably go.”

Stiles glanced up then, looking heartbreakingly disappointed. Noah’s heart leapt, but he forced it back down.

“But you just got here! We just figured it out!” Stiles half-whined.

“Yeah, and thank you for that. I mean it. But uh, I have homework, and Allison’s probably expecting me…”

“I can drive you home?” Stiles offered.

“No, it’s fine. Allison’s coming to pick me up- I mean, she just texted me. Ya. I should go.” Noah turned, grabbing his bag and his camera, and then walked out the door of Stiles’ bedroom, leaving his heart lying there on the floor for Stiles to see.

What he didn’t notice was Stiles’ look of despair as Noah left the room.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had a great time writing this chapter (Stiles and Noah are just so fantastic to write) and I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed making it. I know I haven't updated in literal ages, but I hope this one makes up for it :) please leave some feedback because that will definitely inspire me to update more!!! 
> 
> In this chapter Noah has a little meeting with Scott about werewolf-y things, and then he almost dies, and Stiles saves him, and then some other things almost happen. Happy reading!

It had been three days since silence had fallen between Stiles and Noah. The phone never rang, glances were never exchanged. Noah didn’t know if he’d ever felt so empty, like a piece of him had been ripped away. He keep chastising himself, because Stiles was just a boy, and no boy should have such an effect on his life. And yet, he couldn’t help it. A stupid kid with cute freckles and pretty hands had consumed his mind entirely.

Noah woke on the third morning to his phone ringing. Once he’d gotten past the original sleep-induced stupor, he was scrambling for the flip phone his Uncle had lent him, hands splaying desperately on the bedside table, his room still dimly lit in the early morning light.

All of a sudden, something shot from his hands, and a sticky glob was resting in his palm within seconds. A web had shot out and grabbed his phone.

“Jesus fuck.” Noah hissed, attempting to read the caller id to no avail, webs covering the screen of the phone so that Noah had no choice but to flip it open and answer.

He hoped beyond hope that it wasn’t Stiles. He would die if it wasn’t.

He took a deep breath, then flipped it open.

“Hello?” the phone was still stuck to his hand, he realized, so he didn’t even have to hold it. How convenient.

“Hey! Sorry it’s so early, but I wanted to meet up with you after school, if that’s cool with you?” Noah let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. Scott was on the other end, sounding like he had just found the cure for cancer. How could someone be so optimistic so early in the morning?

“Uh, ya. I mean, sure.” Noah replied, stumbling over his words. A flood of emotions was crashing through him, none of which he could name at the moment.

“Great! Beacon Hills Preserve at 4:30? That’s when Lacrosse finishes” Scott chimed in reply.

“Sure” Noah tried to sound happy, but it came out sounding like he was on the toilet. God dammit.

“See you then” and then Scott hung up the phone. Noah slumped back on his bed, letting his head hit the pillows less than softly. He sighed, closing his eyes. _Just for a few minutes_ he promised himself.

He woke up an hour later to Allison pounding on his door.

“Noah! We’re already late! Let’s go!” He was still pulling on his hoodie as he sprinted to her car. Allison shot him an exasperated look before screeching out of the driveway. Noah’s face remained sheepish even as his knuckles turned white from gripping the door handle so tightly. Allison’s driving was vaguely terrifying, even for a teen werewolf.

***

The day passed entirely uneventfully, and by uneventfully, Noah meant that he and Stiles did not make eye contact once. Noah vaguely wanted to die as he jogged to the Beacon Hills Preserve. He had opted to stay after school and study, once class was over, because he wasn’t doing as well in his courses as he had back home before the bite. Now, he was almost struggling, something that he had never experienced, ever.

Scott was waiting at the sign for the Preserve when Noah finally got there.

“Hey! Sorry I’m late.” Noah coughed out, doubling over and weezing.

“You’re not, actually. Its 4:30 on the dot” Scott replied, looking mildly amused. “How fast did you run to get here?” he added.

“Don’t worry about it” Noah replied, shaking his head.

They made their way deeper into the forest, neither boy speaking as they walked, wolf instincts kicking in so that neither made a sound.

Noah wrestled with himself over whether or no he should tell Scott what he and Stiles had found out. Should he tell him that he was a freaky Spiderman werewolf? Maybe Scott would consider him a danger to the pack. Maybe he would kick him out of Beacon Hills forever. Noah couldn’t think of a worse fate. Never seeing Stiles again? It was unfathomable.

“So” Scott spoke once they had finally stopped. The afternoon light was already weak, a cover of clouds looming overhead, and so deep in the forest it was almost non-existent. Noah silently thanked the gods for his wolfy senses, because otherwise he would’ve been essentially blind standing there.

“What’s up” Noah asked. Not in the ‘hey-haven’t-seen-you-in-a-while-what’s-new?’ way, but in the ‘we-are-always-fighting-for-our-lives-is-everything-okay?’ way.

Noah watched Scott swallow before speaking. “I wanted to talk to you about Flash. And Stiles. But first, how are you holding up? This-“ he brandished to his body “-is pretty weird, eh?”

Noah couldn’t agree more. “Ya, it’s weird. I mean- I’m getting used to it. But I still expect to like, not be able to open jars and shit. It’s like sike! You’re stronger than The Rock! And I’m like who? Me?”

Scott laughed, a soft chuckle that shook his shoulders. He shook his head as he spoke “Sometimes you remind me so much of Stiles it’s insane.” Noah felt vaguely like he’d been slapped, because he missed Stiles so much- too much- and he didn’t want to talk about him. It hurt like a physical ache.

“Speaking of which,” Scott continued, “Have you noticed him acting weird lately? We all have- a little more distant, ya know? But you’ve spent so much time with him lately, we- I thought you might have noticed something.”

“I mean, we haven’t really been talking lately…” Noah trailed off.

“Ya, what happened with that? You two were attached at the hip! I was starting to get jealous.” Scott laughed, and Noah smiled slightly. That made him vaguely happier, knowing that other people saw their connection too.

“I-uh- I don’t know. We just had a little fight, about a dumb thing.” Noah gave nothing away, making sure his heartbeat remained steady. Scott nodded knowlingly.

“No worries, dude, you don’t have to tell me. Not my business anyway. Let me know, though, if you see anything off. Not that I think you would, he almost seems himself around you. But to the rest of us? He acts… how do I put it? On edge? It’s getting kind of freaky. He’s gotten worse these past few days, and I think that it’s because of you. So please, for the sake of everyone, make up with him and go back to having sleepovers so that we can all stop worrying about him.” Scott laughed at his joke, but Noah blushed. He missed their sleepovers.

“Anyway, about Flash. I’m pretty sure he’s a werewolf. And since you spooked him, he hasn’t come to school. I don’t think he wants us to know. Lydia keeps insisting that he’s sick, but Lydia’s an amazing liar, and for all we know, she thinks he really is. I don’t know how to go about the situation, though? Do we press it? Get him to let us into his loop so we can know more about what we’re up against? Do we leave him alone?” Scott changed the topic tactfully.

“I say we try to gain his trust. We can use Lydia, get her to invite him to things. Then once we have it, we figure out whether or not he actually is a werewolf. Then, we steal all his secrets. Problem solved.” Noah replied, pleased to be focusing on something other than Stiles.

“That’s actually- that could work. Good idea, dude.” Scott gave him a little hit on the shoulder, and Noah smiled. He was a bro!

“What’s up with Flash and Lydia, anyway? They seem like a weird couple.” Noah asked what he’d been wondering for a while. She didn’t seem to be particularly interested in him. Then again, she never really seemed particularly interested in anything. Except helping people. He’d noticed she’d turn into a different person if it meant helping someone out.

“Flash and Lydia are a relatively new thing. We thought it was going to be Stiles and Lydia at one point, but she can’t seem to get past her thing for bad boys. She wasn’t even into Flash until he started causing trouble. She dated this other guy before Flash, Jackson. He was brutal, and almost killed us all. But you could tell underneath it that he was really just a messed up kid seeking approval, and I actually think Lydia loved him. After that was Aiden, who was one half of the psychopathic twins that helped terrorize Beacon Hills along with the rest of the Alpha Pack, and even though Stiles was absolutely convinced he was the spawn of Satan the entire time he was here, he ended up dying trying to help save us, so he couldn’t have been all bad. And ya, now she’s arrived at Flash. I don’t know what will happen to him, but it seems with Lydia that she’s always the last one standing.” Scott smiled with a fondness Noah had come to find he reserved solely for his friends. He was left frowning at the “we thought it was going to be Stiles and Lydia” part. Yet again, Noah had fooled myself into thinking that Stiles was not a cute straight boy, when in reality, that’s all he was. He was never going to have feelings for Noah, no matter how badly he wanted him to.

Scott looked up at the canopy of trees over our heads then, and shook his head.

“It’s getting dark, we should get going.” He said, looking mildly concerned.

“You’re right, I should be getting back to Allison. She said we were having some kind of fish for dinner?” Noah shrugged.

Scott laughed. “Allison trying to cook for her guest. How adorable.” the softness in his eyes when he spoke about her made Noah wonder if his feelings for Stiles were as obvious as Scott’s were for Allison. Surely no one was as much as a dead giveaway as Scott was. Noah decided he would check himself from now on whenever he spoke about Stiles. _No giving anything away, you got that?_

“I’m supposed to be at the clinic in like, half an hour, too. Deaton will kill me if I’m late again, so I’ll see you later? We can track down Flash or something, I’ll text you.” They said their goodbyes and Scott jogged off, presumably to find his motorcycle. Noah stood in the forest well after he was gone, smiling in spite of himself. Scott had made plans to hang out with him. He, Noah Argent, was making friends.

He almost wished his Dad were there to see it. Then he remembered that Scott was a werewolf, and so was he. He immediately pushed the thought away, because missing his father was pointless. Particularly when said father would more than gladly slit his throat.

When Noah realized that the sun was almost completely set, he had a little panic before starting to make his way back to the road. He was going to have to walk home, and even though he was a freaking _werewolf_ he still hated the dark with an overwhelming passion.

He thumbed his phone in the pocket of his jeans, contemplating calling Stiles and asking him to come pick him up in his adorable blue jeep. He resisted, though, because he wasn’t sure he could control himself around the other boy anymore. What if he slipped up and told him how crazy he was about him? That would be horrible. Catastrophic. He wouldn’t risk it.

Noah had been walking all of five minutes when something rushed past him, so quick he wasn’t able to make out what it was. He froze, all his senses suddenly hyperaware. A noise came from behind him, and he spun around, the familiar itch in his canines starting up. His flexed his hands, letting his claws peak out slightly from their nail beds.

“Hello?” he whispered. No response. Not that he expected one.

A pair of yellow eyes solidified through the trees, and Noah thought he might pee himself.

“What the _fuck_ ” he whispered.

He felt himself begin to change, and within seconds he was in his full wolf- or maybe spider- form.

He let out a low snarl at the set of eyes, which were staring directly at him. What did they belong to?

Then there was a flash of silver and a disturbingly large person, covered in dark black armour. His eyes settled on a mask so terrifying Noah let out a horrible little yelping noise, and then the world was nothing but searing pain as a large sword dragged across his chest.

He stared into the same mask before it cocked its head to the side, kneeling down and placing a hand behind his head. More pain shot through him and Noah reared up in pain, a loud roar ripping from his throat. He wanted to protect himself, more than anything, but he could already feel how much blood he was losing as the life began to drain from him.

The last thing he saw before he blacked out were those same yellow eyes boring into him.

***

The ceiling above him swam into focus in slow motion once Noah finally opened his eyes. The ceiling was a nice tan colour, a round light mounted in the middle of it. Noah blinked, and realized he knew that light. He knew that ceiling.

“Noah?” A voice- the only voice he ever wanted to hear- was there in his ear. Noah sat up abruptly, pulling Stiles to him.

“Thank god.” Stiles whispered, burying his face into the other boy’s shoulder.

Noah winced, pain racking through him as he moved.

“You need to rest. Lay down. Tell me what happened.”

Noah blinked at him, and Stiles stared back, looking like angel straight from a dream. “How did you find me?” Noah asked, confused.

“I was sick of your radio silence, so I called you to see if you wanted to hang out. You didn’t answer, so I called Allison. She told me you were with Scott, so I called Scott. He said he left you at the Beacon Hills Preserve, and I got the worst feeling- so I drove there and I found you and oh, god- Noah- don’t ever do that again.” He bent down and leaned his forehead right up against Noah’s. “Don’t scare me like that, my heart can’t take it.” He stayed there, and Noah forgot how to breathe.

“Am I seriously hurt? Did you see the ninja?” Noah broke the tension, and cursed himself for it. Stiles pulled away, looking sheepish, then confused.

“What ninja? There was- oh. The others have been mentioning a similar thing- these guys, dressed in armor- did it have a creepy-ass mask? Yellow eyes?”  Stiles responded, chewing his lip.

“Ya exactly, yes to everything.”

“Shit.” Stiles breathed out, looking down at his comforter.

Noah sat up, tilting the other boy’s chin up so he could look him in the face.

“Stiles, what’s going on?” Stiles shook his head, then stood up. He paced for a second before going to the massive board he had set up in his room, the one that had always been there but Noah had paid very little attention to because he was always too busy staring at Stiles’ hands, or his eyes, or his freckles. He never had really looked at the board, seen the newspaper clippings strewn across it, or the red string criss-crossing everywhere.

Stiles picked up a red sharpie and drummed it on his thigh.

“There’s been weird shit going on in Beacon Hills. Even before you-“ he smiled at Noah- “got here. Like, even weirder than usual. These black ninja guys, as you call them, keep showing up and leaving marks on us… And ya, you have one too.” Stiles said before Noah even had time to reach for the side of his head, which was still burning slightly.

“We have no idea what the symbol means, or who the warriors- ninjas- are, we just know that we’re scared, and we don’t know what’s going on. Plus, I’ve been having these weird dreams- you know about those. And Allison’s been weird lately too, not to mention Scott. I don’t know, it’s like everything’s just… messed up.”

He bent down in front of Noah, playing with the Sharpie still.

“Things seemed to get better once you got here, for me, at least. But I guess they couldn’t stay good for long. You were the first one they really hurt. The rest they left alone, except the marks.” He was gazing at Noah with a look in his eyes that he couldn’t quite place.

Noah looked down at his chest, covered in a massive bandage.

“You saved me, though. My knight in shining armour.” He chuckled, and so did Stiles.

“The pack is coming soon, they’re going to take you to Scott’s mom- I’m worried that it’s worse than you’re trying to make it seem.” Stiles replied, concern edging his voice.

“What are we going to do in the meantime?” Noah asked, looking at Stiles.

Stiles swallowed hard, but didn’t answer.

 _To hell with it_. Noah thought to himself. He might as well go for it, he’d already almost died. How could things get worse?

“Have you ever wanted something really badly, but knew you couldn’t have it?” he asked.

Stiles breathed out, whispering softly “Ya, pretty much my whole life I’ve felt that way.” He smiled but his eyes looked sad as he fiddled with the sharpie lid.

Noah sighed. “Have you ever thought that maybe you could have it?” It seemed like they’d moved even closer to each other.

“Sometimes.” Stiles had a faraway look in his eyes then, and Noah realized that he was talking about Lydia. He bit his lip and looked down, his fingers subconsciously fluttering to the cut in his chest, which now hurt less than that sudden realization.

“Does your cut hurt?” Stiles asked. “Here” he kissed his fingers tips and hovered them over the bandage.

“All better” Noah smiled at him, then looked into his eyes. Stiles looked back.

“You know, now’s one of those times.”

“What?”

“That I feel like I could have the thing that I want.” Noah’s eyes widened in realization. Was this really happening? Was Stiles admitting he felt the same way for Noah that Noah did for him?

“Ya?” Noah’s voice cracked.

“Ya.” Stiles tapped the sharpie to his lips and looked down, smiling a little, his cheeks flushed. Noah tilted his chin back up with his finger.

“Hey, look at me.” He dropped his hand, and Stiles looked at him. Noah couldn’t help but smile, then wet his lips with his tongue. All he wanted to do was kiss Stiles. In fact, he really wanted to take a look at his lovely lips, but he couldn’t seem to break eye contact. However, Stiles did, glancing at Noah’s mouth as his tongue flicked out. Noah watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed, the action obviously having an effect on him.

Noah realized they had managed to come within an inch of one another. He could feel Stiles warm breath on his face, sweet and smelling subtly of chocolate. He reached to cup Stiles’ face, leaning in-

“What are you kids doing in here-“ Isaac’s voice rang out as he kicked open the door “Oh shit” he stood frozen in the doorway, arm blocking Scott, Allison, Lydia, Kira and Flash from entering the room as Noah and Stiles simultaneously whipped their heads around.

“We’ll- Uh, be right back.” Scott coughed out, taking Isaac by the shoulders and turning him around. Noah just caught the look on Lydia’s face. It almost seemed like she was hurt. No way, not Lydia Martin. Noah felt a small stab of resentment. She couldn’t decide to be into Stiles now that he didn’t feel the same way.

“Um, uh. You should probably put a shirt on- no, we need more gauze. Oh man, this is embarrassing. I mean, ugh-“ Stiles got up quickly, rummaging around his room.

He found what he was looking for, a black zip up hoodie, and threw it at Noah. When it almost hit his battle wound, Stiles let out a yelp, flailing over and fluttering his hands over Noah in a panic.

“I’m so sorry! Are you okay? I’ll help you put that on- oh” Noah grabbed his hand, and Stiles shut up.

“It’s fine. _We’re_ fine. Let’s just go get Mama McCall to check up on me, and then we can- talk, or whatever. I’ve missed you a lot.” Stiles breathed out, and smiled slightly, only the corners of his mouth turning up. He was still blushing.

“I missed you a lot too.” Noah smiled, then shimmied his body until he was somewhat standing. He pulled on the hoodie, the pain only vaguely excruciating. Then he grabbed Stiles by the shoulder and pulled him close, using his weight to balance his weak legs as he placed a kiss on the other boy’s cheek.

Stiles let out a little noise between a whimper and a moan, and Noah didn’t think he even noticed he’d done it.

“Let’s go.” Noah whispered into his ear, and Stiles wrapped an arm around his waist, the pair hobbling together out of the room and into the hallway.


End file.
